All Forum Posts by: Albert Hasson

I put 25% down on each property, put 10-15k in Reno costs per property and end up with about a 60% LTV on each. With that I sleep great at night!

Molly, real estate is exciting and can be rewarding personally and financially but I know lots of smart real estate investors who lost everything here in Arizona during the past 5 years. I have many outstanding rentals but will probably never be able to replace my income from my full time job. Plus take into consideration the fact that most people get their health insurance, retirement and disability benefits from their "full time job". Just look at the whole picture before you decide to not show up for work tomorrow. Good luck.

Johnson H, it cost me $75/mo per pool to maintain. I have two homes where the renter maintains the pool as they were former homeowners with pools. I intend to sell the homes in 5-10 years and expect the pool to command an extra 20-25k vs. a home in the same neighborhood without a pool. I don't worry much about the liability as I have a licensed pool fence contractor install the fencing with the appropriate safety features. When these homes came on the market in the past couple years they were such screaming deals that I couldn't pass them up, pool or no pool.

Also depends on where you live. Here in Phoenix many, many homes have pools and yes, these homes command a rental premium on the order of $150-200/mo. All my pools have an iron pool fence and automatically closing gate. We also comply will all city and county rules regarding pool barriers and make tenant sign a pool addendum. That being said I try not to rent to families with children under 5 if they are looking at one of my homes with a pool.

Getting loans 5-8 was a nightmare. I have talked with some smaller local banks about commercial loans going forward but the rate and terms are inferior.

Here in Phoenix we too are seeing many fewer foreclosures come on the market vs. last year. I haven't seen banks fix up properties other than to make them eligible for FHA financing. Competition for the few foreclosures out there is fierce. The investing environment in dismal versus a year ago.

Here in Phoenix, AZ REO's make up only 8.9% of active listings. There are only 25K homes on the market total so there are just under 2500 REO's, many of which are not owned by Fannie, Freddie or HUD. In short, I doubt this program will have much effect on rents in my area although I would hope by reducing REO inventory further it will cause prices to rise.

If you are new to real estate investing I would highly recommend doing a couple of deals locally first.
There are always issues with closing, rehabbing, renting/selling and there is no way you will be able to deal with them properly if you are on the other side of the country.

I had a condenser unit stolen from a short sale I was buying. Happened while house was in escrow. Sellers didnt have any money so I ended up buying new one so I could get financing. Turns out it was a crew of landscapers who stole ac units while they mowed and trimmed!! They targeted homes with for sale signs. I was surprised because its a nice area. Once I closed on the house I installed a motion sensor light and padlocked the gate to the back yard. Best defense is to get tenant in place ASAP.

Geoffrey, another consideration is how much time you have to manage your properties. I work full time in another industry so I don't have time to collect rent,track down late payments, listen to excuses why rent will be late, etc. I therefore only invest in solid middle to upper middle class neighborhoods. My tenants are realtors, small business owners, teachers, etc. With very few exceptions the rent comes in consistently by the 5th of the month. Without exception, my tenants are former homeowners that lost their homes to short sale or foreclosure. They have a homeowner mentality and treat my homes with great care. You will not find that in low end rental tenants. Good luck.