All Forum Posts by: Page Huyette

I just ran across a similar deal and the first replay was "no way" to seller financing. It seems this is usually the first reply due to the fact that they don't know what the heck you're talking about. I would agree though, that even if you are successful in working out some creative financing, this doesn't seem like a screamin' deal. Make sure its worth all the effort.

I just ended up using one of the spreadsheets already posted on BP and modified it to suit my needs. Ran two separate spreadsheets and then added in the cost of paying back the private money loan plus additional principal as an additional expense.

Another development: I'd nearly written this deal off as dead, since they rejected my offer and didn't counter. I politely emailed them last week and thanked them fore their time, stating I assumed they weren't interested in negotiating further since I hadn't heard back from them.

Also let them know I'm planning on buying several properties in the area over the next couple of years and that they are welcome to contact me if their situation changes.

Heard back right away that they hadn't had a chance to talk about the counter due to travel, and would be in touch. At this point I am ready to walk away from the property, as it seems they may not truly be serious about selling, and are just shilling for an overpriced offer. But, I've found it very interesting that if I phrase my responses just right, they still stay in the game.

I've learned a lot from this transaction, regardless of how it ends up, and I'm truly grateful the experience. Not to mention that its been great fun. I'm already putting this in the "inactive" file and digging around for a better deal.

There seems to be confusion here, indicating that you need to sign up for an additional service to get free reports. By going to annualcreditreport.com you can indeed get one free credit report per year from each of the three agencies. This doesn't include your score, and you can add that on for a fee, but the full report is completely free with no strings attached. This is the only free service authorized by the government.

I would recommend that you put a note on your calendar every 4 months to check one agency at a time, that way you can stay updated through out the year.

Here's the long version. For the short version, skip to the second to last paragraph of this post:

The theory behind YNAB is that you give ever single job a dollar, so everything is accounted for (even wild hair money).

For example, a paycheck you get from your day job might be entered into the register as “income available for November.” You then assign each dollar from that paycheck a job: $900 to your mortgage, $200 to utilities, $150 for dining out/entertaining, $50 for blowing wherever you'd like, and so on. Until there's nothing left on the table. Prior to assigning dollars, you've estimated what you need to spend on each category each month.

In the same budget, you might have a grouping of categories for a rental property. When you receive your rent, say $900, instead of that being set as “income available for November” it would be allotted to $400 for mortgage, $120 for taxes, etc.

When you incur an expense, whether personal or for an investment, it gets put in the register (just like in Quicken or similar programs). You can see how much money you have left after you've categorized it against what you've budgeted, or in the case of other categories, how much savings you're building towards a repair or upgrade for a property.

If you overspend, the amount is taken out of the next month's available balance, leaving you to make it up by spending less in whatever categories you choose. If you've underspent, hopefully you've allotted that money to a savings category, otherwise it rolls over to income available for the next month. Each dollar always accounted for in some way.

The other idea behind YNAB is to get to the point where you are living off last months income, which can come quickly to some or take some time, depending on where you are. This holds true for rental properties as well as personal expenses. Once you have a clear idea of how much you spend each month, you might start allotting an amount out of each check or windfall towards the rainy day fund. Dave Ramsey has a similar approach, but I believe he works towards having just $1000 stashed. A lot of people on the YNAB forums seem to have started with Ramsey's approach, and then moved on to this one.

This may seem like no-brainer stuff to number crunchers, but to the more creative types who struggle with managing their money and investments, I think this is the way to go.

Also, their forums are stellar. Fast and responsive, and just as positive and supportive as the BiggerPockets.com forums. People who use this system are passionate about it, and they are more than willing to help you along.

How has it changed my life? In my wild youth before kids, property and responsibility, I was never good with money, didn't get how to budget. Always worked in fields where I had plenty to play with (relatively speaking), so I didn't worry so much. I tried standard budgeting, but it always seemed like you were asked to set a budget and then live within it. I didn't get it (I was an English major). If I didn't get the numbers right when I was putting together the budget, I was always behind the eight ball either feeling like a failure or just giving up on the whole budgeting idea and leaving it behind for a stab at it another time. With YNAB, you can see exactly where your money is going, where you need to spend more or less. Its all right there. No judgement.

As a result of using this program, money is no longer a mystery to me. It also removes the purse strings responsibility if you are living/working with a partner, since everything is right there. I also use it for my kid's allowances, and they can track how much they have, what they've spent money on. It helps them to understand how quickly money vanishes if you don't spend it with care.

Told you this was the long version.

I would not recommend using Elance to find a website designer. While there are some good people looking for work on the site, if you lowball you will likely get an overseas response, or quotes from people desperate for work that probably won't give you the quaility you are looking for. I used elance to find work as a freelance writer when I was starting out, and always got the response "sorry, we want to hire you but we found a lot of people to do it cheaper). This option might leave you with communication barriers and difficulties and little recourse if things don't turn out well. Why waste the time on something mediocre -- its still money and time.

Someone else recommended using a Wordpress template, which is the way to go. The ones I use are from Studiopress.com which are already SEO optimized. Purchasing a theme rather than going with a free one gives you a lot of pro customization options without having to know code.

Studiopress has an add-on package called Premise that helps you do SEO yourself if you want to give that a whirl before outsourcing. Most writers that specialize in SEO are not well paid, so again, where do you want to put your money? This is a generalization, and just my opinion.

[Disclaimer: I'm not trying to devalue or offend anyone that specializes in this type of work]

These are my recommendations, similar to others but what I've found works best for me:

Domain: Namecheap for under $10/year
Hosting: Hostgator.com (Hatchling plan) under $5/month. As good as Dreamhost, but cheaper. Great support.
or GreenGeeks.com (offsets with wind energy credits)

Studiopress.com premium themes. About $80 per theme & framework.

Premise add-on (if desired) price varies.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I can pass along a few freebie tutorials if you want to tackle it yourself. Its so much easier than it used to be, I would only use a web designer for tweaks and customizations beyond what your chosen theme can provide for you, and most of them have everything you need.

We had a similar situation a few years ago in a rental we owned that was out of state. The house was in an area that is ...ahem...known for great growing conditions. Mild temps, sunny, remote. In just a few months our tenants had rewired the entire house to include 6-7 outlets in every room including the ceilings. The property wasn't maintained, and the "eyes of friends" I was counting on until my next visit didn't exactly pan out to say the least.

I had an inkling something fishy was going on, but no hard evidence. I had them on a 3 month lease to start, reverting to monthly, so I simply told them I had other plans for the property and terminated their lease. This was before I saw what they'd done to the property. They were not happy (that's an understatement) , since the timing was likely right before their big harvest. Bummer for them.

I used their entire deposit (which was hefty due to the size of the house) to take care of all the repairs and fix the electrical, get the yard back into shape, etc. There was water damage in the garage from all the humidity, which would have been more serious had it been in a different part of the house. I sent them a spreadsheet detailing all the work done & also invoiced them for an amount over what their deposit covered (not a lot) to further drive home that I was fully aware of what they'd done, without actually coming out and saying so. I didn't lose any money as a result of all of this, and the house didn't lose value.

Were they pissed? Heck yeah. Did I receive vulgar, insulting text messages? Of course. Enter call block.

Most people that are doing this sort of thing, be it on a big or small scale are pretty aware they are doing something wrong, but remember, they are not experienced in real estate or other high-level thinking (again, this is about pot, not mexican drug cartels) so even if it's one plant, chances are they might be the type that is willing to take small, unsavory risks here and there. Bearing that in mind, I'd terminate their lease and find a nice spinster that quilts for charity to fill the unit.

The more rentals you've had experience with, the greater the odds that you'll run into some sort of problem like this, its just a matter of time. Taking it in stride makes you better able to deal with future issues.

I use my bank billpay as much as possible, but also rely completely on YNAB (You Need a Budget) to track all transactions either from my desktop or mobile device, immediately putting it into the proper ledger. Their software has changed my life--no kidding!

Wondering if anyone has put together a spreadsheet that utilizes private money at a higher interest rate for the down payment, with owner financing or a conventional for the rest. I've worked out two separate spreadsheets, but would like to see it all pulled together.

For example: down payment loan at higher rate with shorter term. Balance at lower rate over 360 months.

If anyone has already created something like this, I'd be grateful for the share.

I'm looking into a four-plex in a great part of town that is broker advertised as a tear down, and the price more or less reflects it. I've gotten some general background info from a friend who lives on the block, including the fact that the owner lives next door to the property and originally intended to remodel it and re-rent after purchase.

Friend thinks the property has been vacant for years. Purchasing at current asking would allow great cash flow even with putting $ into it.

What 's the best way to contact a seller like this? Letter? If a letter, what would you say?

I'm told he's an "odd hermit" but would like to get more info on his story and the property.