All Forum Posts by: Ram Chandrasekaran

Thanks to both of you again! Your questions are making me THINK.. :). Our reason to move to the other city is being able to do activities (charity show and things like that). Currently it is an hour long commute for us doing these activities. Also, being a down market we thought it is a good time to buy. Those are the only 2 good reasons.

As for the getting rid of this townhouse! That would be a miracle to break-even (at the LEAST) by selling it for $410,000 (the comps show $240,000 - checked about a month back). As for the dual payments, our plan was to get the $1800.00 rent and cover the additional $1000 (HOA, Taxes, Insurance, etc.) + another $1800 (max.) for the house we are planning to buy. This will be about $2800 total monthly expenses which is already what we pay for the current townhome (every month). Our monthly expense would not change and that was the plan. But I see what you are saying on the misc. charges that we will have to consider for the current townhome... like umbrella insurance, LLC (for asset protection), utilities, vacancy backup, etc. those would ideally increase the monthly expense by about $300 (or probably more).

Seems like a TRICKY situation for us, I guess.... LOL. I really appreciate all (3 of you) for taking the time to respond. I am pondering how I should go forward with our idea. As always, any ideas/suggestions are welcome :-)

Have a good Sunday.

Cheers
Ram

Thanks everyone for your responses! That is VERY useful... In summary, I understand that the discount is not going to be a whole lot but a 10-20% at the max. Here's a tricky situation...

We already own a house and as we bought this townhouse at the market peak it cost us $410,000 - 3 br 1.5 ba townhome. Now, if we rent this it will go for $1800.00 and we cannot go for the REO home that will be more than $220,000 (max.). This price (its mortgage) will break even with the rent we get from the current townhouse and our monthly expenses will remain the same. Thats one reason why we are so keen on this 50% discount.

On the other hand, we visited 10 houses last week and only 2 were OK of which 1 is already pending. I happened to check the County Recorder's office database and found that both houses appreciated from about $250,000 to $500,000 between 2004 and 2005 (as you might know)!

This is another reason why we want to bid at 50% of the current listed price. Ideally, we are looking to bid between 2001 and 2003 prices of those houses. Is that a good approach?

Wheatie: I didnt quite get the Rate-and-Term loan. Is that different from the 30-yr fixed? Pardon my ignorance! :)

Heathen: Just to clarify, what you are saying is, if the house that we buy @ $200,000 which fortunately appraises to $300,000, we stand a good chance to get at least $240,000 loan approved by the lender? I am assuming the lender will appraise the house himself. This would help us get some cash at closing. Did I understand that right?

Question to everyone: When we submit offers is it OK to submit with no contingencies? I see heathen had one offer submitted with no contingencies like Inspection, etc. but Mortgage contingency (discussion in the link he provided). Is that a good idea to do for all homes or you base on specific properties only?

Thanks much again for your responses and looking forward to hear from you all again!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers
Ram

Team
I am checked out REALTYTRAC (just a glimpse of it) and it appears to be giving some GREAT details if I sign up for only Trial. But I wanted to check if anyone in our BP has used it and found useful. How much do they charge for subscription though? Any luck with investing using this information?, etc. are my questions. Request some expert comments, please.

Cheers
Ram

Team
We are looking to buy a REO in Alameda County - Fremont, Union City and Newark (one of these) and are planning to move in there. Currently, we live in Concord, CA. We saw couple of houses and one is listed (REO) at $400,000. Will an offer contingent on inspection and loan approval is something we can do?

Secondly, is an offer $200,000 makes sense. What is the feasibility of this being presented to the Bank by the agent who is coordinating this deal let alone bank accepting it.

Other questions: Can we finance upfront including the rehab cost too? In other words, can I offer $200,000 bid and go to the lender to let him approve $230,000 so that we can cash out the $30,000 for rehabbing and cosmetic upgrade, etc.

If not, will lending money from Private and/or hard money lenders and re-finance the house within 3 months of closing and pay back the private or hard money lender work?

Any help is highly appreciated.

Cheers
Ram

Team
We are looking for a REO agent to work with in the Alameda County - Fremont, Newark, Union City, Milpitas and Warm Springs, Northern CA. Please email me @ [email protected] if you are willing to work or know one who might.

Have a great day.

Cheers
Ram

Hi Norcal67
Sorry for the delayed reply. Being a beginner investor and you looking at large deals I can help you find one. By that I mean, all the due diligence will be my part and you can do your final check to invest in those deals. BTW, by large deals do you mean, apartment houses, commercial properties, etc.? Please feel free to send me an email to [email protected], we can catch up there for more details.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers
Ram Chandrasekaran

OK! I am in then... :-). Hope its gonna get interesting!!

Cheers

Personally, being a novice in Real Estate investing I think this would create too many dimensions and E.G.O! I am not being cynical but the fact is negotiation is about your active vocabulary, body language, Oral communication skills, etc. which are acquired skills. I am not sure how well it will fly with the team if there is going to 10 different responses for the same Foreclosure deal a beginner is trying to close.

On the other hand, negotiation typically would be part of the mentoring. We are able to find mentors in this site and they direct the beginners how to "Talk" to motivated sellers. Does anyone agree with my opinion? It is not necessary, but still, I am taking VOTES!! LOL Jus kiddin.

Cheers!

Team
Sorry to ask you the same question twice. Anyone Investing in MI on the REOs and things like that Super Deals, please help. You will see my 'About me' in one of the previous replies from me! ;-)

Cheers!

Hi Josh
Whenever I go to Forum page and in turn to one of the specific posts in 'My Posts' it prompts for the User ID and Password which is OK. I understand that Forum is different from the home page login. However, there are couple of issues, I guess! :)

1. Every time I trigger 'Logon Automatically next time' option, it fails to do so for the Forum page

2. After selecting a specific post from 'My post' if I am not logged in it prompts for User ID and password. clicking Login takes me to the Forum home page (or the Forum Index) instead of the specific forum conversation I was looking at before logging in.

Are the above issues at all or am I missing something? Please let me know when you can.

Cheers
ram