All Forum Posts by: Pam N.

I did a search on the MLS for active listings that had the word "motivated" in the description and I was surprised to see there is a lot on there, quite a few have been sitting on there for a while. I know that likely means the houses are overpriced...

So, if there's a house for sale at $500,000 and it is worth $375,000 ARV.... would you bother making an offer of 70% of ARV if the description says "extremely motivated" and it has been for sale for over 3 months? What about if there are expireds that were "motivated"? Do people just write that to get a multiple offer scenario or do they usually actually mean they are motivated?

Thanks for the reply, It's helpful for thinking this through. Are there any strategies that aren't very hard to do though? I would be looking in nicer neighborhoods, and the tenant with bad credit would be required to put up a downpayment and agree to a long term lease. I would be paid an assignment fee. I suppose they could have good credit too and just not want to pay interest on a mortgage. As for where the seller will move, I could have the buyer agree to wait 30-60 days so the seller can move out. Maybe they will have already moved but don't want to deal with a typical tenant. So they could move wherever they wanted... Again, I'm talking about the nicer neighborhoods, not the poorer areas.

After listening to a cd by Ron Legrand I am thinking of focusing on assigning contracts from homeowners who are underwater and helping them put a renter in their home who will take over their mortgage and pay for repairs. The renters will generally be people with bad credit who can't get mortgages but who are able to pay. Has anybody here tried doing this? Have you run into any problems? I think I'm going to jump in pretty soon here.

Thanks for all the replies!

If I rent out a single family home, are children more common in these and does that make them more risky than a duplex or fourplex?

@Aly W.

I am considering becoming a landlord but I'm worried because I've seen a couple posts about tenants causing thousands of dollars in damages. I'm wondering, why would a tenant ever cost you money like that? Can't you get them to pay for damages? If they stain the carpet and break things, they would pay because the lease would state they are obligated to pay, right?

I am looking to buy a condo in downtown Minneapolis, how do I know if something is over priced? I found a property through a real estate broker website and I've looked it up on the county's property information website. The county has the total value as $97,500 (taxable value is 67,035) but it is listed for $150,000. I've looked up a couple other condos and they are all listed over the county's value like this. What does this mean?

Also, the broker's website shows comparables from late 2012/early 2013 and they seem significantly cheaper. Like $50-80,000 cheaper. Does this mean downtown Mpls is overpriced right now? This is my first purchase and I really don't want to start out under water. Would it be better to wait a couple years for the next recession?

Hi.

I'm new to REI and I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about it. My fiance is an architect and ultimately what I'd like to do is find lots to purchase or houses to demo and build new houses that he designs.

Is this the sort of thing that requires a lot of money to get started? Does being designed by an architect generally bring in a bigger profit?

I am toying with the idea of getting a realtor's license thinking it might help find deals on land. Would it make sense to work with a broker/agency to start out or am I just as well off taking courses through kaplan?