All Forum Posts by: William Murrell

Someone once told me that in times like these, it's constructive to look at that loss not as money wasted, but as tuition paid to learn a lesson you won't ever forget. Think of the money you'll save not making this mistake again! At least that's how I try to look at it. Glad to hear things worked out and you can get things back on track and rented out.

I have bought houses from each. I personally liked homesearch (xome now) better than hubzu. The process was more straightforward. With xome, the auction completed twice with me as high bidder but not meeting reserve, and they reset it. But on the third time they accepted my bid even though it didn't meet reserve. With Hubzu, we had two properties where we were high bid but under reserve and they just kept resetting it, 12+ times. Also, make sure you are accounting for the fees. They're listed on the side of the page and will add a significant amount to the actual purchase price. Last but not least, block off some time for the auction if you're serious about the house. The last one I won was supposed to end at two pm. I thought it would be done shortly after. But since the auction adds 10 or 15 min whenever someone makes a last minute bid, it kept getting extended until it finished almost 2.5 hours later. Had I been unable to sit there for the additional time, I would have lost it. Good luck!

You can definitely get better terms than that for financing if it's in your name, as opposed to in the LLC. You could go out to 30 yr term and at a lower rate as well which will help significantly with cashflow.

Absolutely you can buy one. Hopefully you have income, because that's more important than your age. Banks will want to see that you have enough money to cover the debt service. If you can afford it, that's a very smart start because you can live in one unit and rent out the other unit (s). Then the tenant will pay your living expenses and help you save up for the next one. It's also a lot easier to get financing for houses you intend to live in. There are programs with low or no money down that you may qualify for. Good luck!

Welcome to the area! I hope to see you at the REIA, but feel free to reach out to any of us if you ever need anything.

Go to a regional bank and ask to speak to their loan officer. Don't bother with mega banks (BOA, Wells Fargo, etc). Explain to them what you just explained to us. Tell them you want it so you can remodel the house. The last time I talked to a lender about it, they were doing 85% LTV, so you'd be looking at ~90k HELOC. That figure will most likely vary. They'll set everything up, appraise it, and then tell you what you can get. Good luck!

Let's say you're selling your family house and you didn't want the new owner to turn it into a bed and breakfast.  You could put that in the contract and then when the buyer breaks contract and turns it into a B&B, you could begin the process of taking it back.  The most common example I can think of is selling something that you want to be conserved from being developed.  Like "here's my family land, but you can't turn this beautiful ranch into a commercial shopping center.  It has to stay as a ranch."  Hope that helps.

Don't worry about it.  If you were going to buy it and move out immediately, that might raise a red flag.  But if you're going to live in it >1 year, then it's no big deal.  People do it all the time.  

Great points all around. I know the area you're looking at and there are some good spots to invest in Hampstead.  While I agree about the return being low, I will also point out that the competition from investors in Wilmington is intense. You are either going to need to go off market, buy a fixer upper,  or both to get any return these days.  My biggest thing I don't love about this deal is that it's a mfg home. Exit strategy isn't as clear for those. Also, some property managers don't touch mfg homes or rents below 1k. Maybe you could partner with someone to get your feet wet on a little more stable deal?

<100k is going to be tough.  The second it gets listed, the blood is in the water and everyone and their brother will come out of the woodwork.  You'd be amazed how quickly 9,000 offers will be placed on it, regardless of condition if it's anywhere near that price.  It's not to say there aren't deals, but they can take a lot of work to find.   I can't tell you how many times I've seen "Investor's Special!  Only 100k!"  You look at the house and it needs 20k worth of work and then it will still only be worth 120k if you do it.  No thanks.  At that point, just buy retail and get a newer house.