All Forum Posts by: Michael Pilarski

Nicholas Hubbard It sounds like you're on the right track. The first thing would be to drive by the property different times of the day and check it out. Besides fire damage has anything else been damaged if its sitting vacant (ex. copper plumbing removed by theives, electricall ripped out because of vandals. Another option would be to find out what the costs of demo and rebuilding on the property. That may also be a viable strategy to market to another buyer. With it already being owned by an investor company, its hard to say if they know whats in the deal or not. They may have gotten this ina bulk buy situation from a bank and only looked up the taxes and based on that set the price. The best thing is to do your due diligence. Don't research house values research the comps of what has sold at whatever price and how long ago it sold. Pay a contractor to go by with you to help figure costs of repairs. I hope that helps some.

Darrin Bentley 1st welcome to BP! Wow, jumping in and going full bore on your first investment. I think people may need a little more info to help you out. You said the total of combined expenses was $21,661.96 but you don't mention principle payback amount. What would that be? Is the building completely rented out or are there vacancies? If there are vacancies, how long have they been vacant and what renovations may or may not need to be done? If it's vacant then how are you determining gross rents? Just throwing those out there. I'm sure some are curious (besides me). Again welcome!

Bill Gulley Great idea for a thread! I'm surprised there haven't been more people jumping in with their ideas. I didn't even think of the "why do you want to be the bank question?" just the why do you want to sell. Dion DePaoli Excellent points to think about. Most of the time buyers just want to get a good price for what they are buying and don't think of these other points. This has me looking at things very differently. Thanks guys!

Steve L. One of my suggestions was already give (the bar/club). There used to be one here in Nashville that was great for a while. The other would be a mental health supportive living facility. This is for highly independent and high functioning mental health patients. Similar to a half way house but the residents don't leave. Plus you would be providing an important service to the community and probably wouldn't need to change the zoning. There is a huge need for these across the country and some local governments will even subsidize to help with costs. I have a friend that owns one here and TN and she is making bank and is looking to open a second soon.

Jeff S Thanks for the link. That gives me a lot to research regarding courses and books. Bill Gulley you posted in the thread Jeff mentioned and as alwys very informative and the fact that you don't want to be seen a s guru as a reason not to write the book is bogus. You're already a guru... not a predatory guru. You could always write the book and give it away in electronic format or sell it and give the proceeds to charity.

Wow! That is awesome. Good for you two. Was this house a rehab? How did you acquire it? Can you give us any details on what you bought it for, how much you put into, and potential profit?

Bill Gulley Great suggestions! Unfortunately, taking that route would sideline the plans my wife and I already have. I have a job now in IT that I'm doing well in and real estate will be a side business for me for a bit until I can transfer into it fulltime. I agree about the student debt and will be talking with the little Mrs. tonight after all this new info. Since we are retiring all of our debt except the house and student loan, she has come around and is willing to allow me my dream of real estate investing. I tried to explain some of this to her and I got the impression going this route scares her. She's like me in the fact that she doesn't want to be involved in something she doesn't understand and I obviously need to learn a lot more (and have the reserves) before doing this type of investing. This will definately be a strategy later on after we've get our original plans going. Thanks yet again for all the info and things to think about!

Ann Bellamy, Bill Gulley, Dion DePaoli All this info is wonderful! Ann I will be hunting for HML in my REI club for sure. Bill, stop doing 12 oz. curls and write that book (you can still do cardio though)! You've probably forgotten more on this subject than some of the people that are actually investing now and considered pros. Getting with a mortgage broker that is active in purchasing and funding is a great idea. I already have a good attorney in the wings for when I jump in (the jump in point based on this conversation may change) Which brings me to Dion. Losing the money wouldn't be devastating, but would put our plans behind further than I'd like. That being said, I need to continue to learn and build funds. It is blatantly obvious this small amount isn't going to be worth the risk to start and I still have a lot to learn. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but the common thread all of you mentioned is that the amount is something all of you are not interested in and all of you are from different areas and markets. I would venture a guess that may be pretty standard in most markets today including mine. Would it be possible for one of you to walk me through a loan you've purchased or a theoretical loan with figures and amounts for profit or loss and with a pitfall or two as mentioned earlier in the thread? Again, awesome info and insight. Thank you!!!

Michael Quarles That is absolutely hilarious and frightening all at the same time. I would at least put in a report with the cops. I'm no professional but his tone wasn't just angry there was a hint of true aggresion there. Definately going to get Google Voice. Rob K I almost spit my drink out when I read that. Luckily in life I've learned there is no good that comes from "getting even" (the big Man upstairs frowns on it too) and why waste your effort on something non productive when you could spend that time making more money? Still hilarious though.

Andy Chu, Ann Bellamy, Bill Gulley, and Dion DePaoli. Thank you so much for the in depth explanation and the awesome answers! I've learned more from all your posts then I have doing my own research. I have some more questions for all of you. I assume working for a mortgage broker would help in learning some of the ins and outs of doing this. Do you think becoming a mortgage broker or working for a mortgage broker be helpful? If so, for someone with no experience how would you get your foot in the door? What is the average cost of doing your DD for a single asset assuming title in origination is not required? My wife and I are in the middle of paying off our debts and we're gearing up to start investing. There's a chance we'll be debt free except for our house and 1 student loan within the next week or two. Once we pay off all our other debts, we will have some money left over and were thinking of putting it toward the student loan (as of this moment I don't think it would pay it off completely). Now I'm thinking maybe it would be best to either use that money to find a hard moeny lender to work with. It wouldn't be a lot probably somewhere between 7,000 and 11,000. Would this amount be sufficient to "get in the game" and what kind of return would we be looking at based on a slighty higher tolerance of risk than conservative? Thanks again!!!