All Forum Posts by: Presley Reeves

Brandon,

You mentioned the banks don't want to re-fi; what is the sticking point with them? Have they told you what they want to secure a deal?

Thanks guys!

Anyone have any experience making offers to Fannie Mae on their Home Path program?  I was wondering if I could make an offer slightly below their ask price to give me some wiggle room for replacing the HVAC at the property.

I am looking at multifamily deals right now in Virginia.  I am in Northern Virginia.

Hi Lance!  I bought my first multifamily, a quadruplex two years ago.  The numbers just made sense, and I was able to get it at the right price.  I believe you will do fine.  Just study up here, and pay attention to the numbers.

If it blows your skirt up you can manage the property yourself.  I don't, I use a property manager.  This is for two reasons. First, I want to develop passive income that I don't have to work every day for.  Second, I just want to concentrate on finding great deals, and financing them.  It didn't make sense to me to develop skills and systems for marketing properties, screening tenants, taking middle of the night maintenance calls, and God forbid evicting a tenant when I could outsource that expertise to someone else who specializes in it.  Although, some here will tell you that managing your first property yourself is a great learning experience even if you come to use professional property managers later.  Your choice, it is your journey.

Best of luck to you.

First Western Federal is another lender that might work for you.

V/R

Thanks Ned!

Thanks Guy!  I appreciate your comments.  Very helpful!

I am evaluating a twelve unit property in West Texas, and a 13 unit property in DFW area. I can do one of these deals right now, but not both. Would it be viewed as unethical, or not negotiating in good faith to submit letters of intent on both properties simultaneously? I don't believe that a properly worded letter of intent will be a legal issue; it is just a matter of reputation, and basically doing business transparently and honestly.  What are your thoughts?

Tom,

Great topic.  I am a little more inclined to go with Robert Kiyosaki'a philosophy about "good debt," and "bad" debt.  Good debt is money borrowed to purchase things like rental property that generate income for you, whereas bad debt is something that costs you money each month.  A boat, a car, or other such "do-dads."  Your personal mortgage is "bad" debt, in a sense, because that is a monthly expense.  However one does need a place to live, and you could make an argument that it is better to build equity in your home yourself, as opposed to building equity for a landlord.  This is where both Kiyosaki, and Ramsey would agree that a mortgage on a place you live in is "bad debt."  You carry your mortgage as liability on you balance sheet; the bank carries your mortgage as an asset on their balance sheet because they collect money from you each month.  So when you borrow money for income producing real estate it is not the same debt you have for personal items you buy that cost you money, and depreciate over time.  For rental property you carry the debt as a liability, but the property itself as an asset, and your net operating income minus your cost of money is your cash flow, which should be positive.  So it should be easy for each of us to answer the question; is all debt the same?