All Forum Posts by: Ray Fisher

I guess your right Brian i'm not a professional like you! I will run mine you run yours. I get tired of 2 to 3 grand damage evey time they move out.  I have a lot of long term renters.  just choose not to put up with the problems. 

My experience with section 8 has been a 1 year lease that paid like a slot machine every month on the 7th , but the downside has been  in 1 year they move to a new clean house, because I swear they have not cleaned in the last year, and i have 2 to 3 k worth of damages.  new flooring every year .

This has happened a number of times.  

If i do it again i would build destruction proof properties.

Kim i am no pro!

but i have a story to tell you,  years ago when we were looking at our first rental purchase.  I found what i thought was a deal , and if it did not work felt like i could take the hit.

My wife was a realtor and My potential partner both agreed that No one wanted to live in that small farming community. I told them the town wasn't empty and that over 400 people lived there. 

Agreeing to disagree, (Back then). I Ran an add in the paper that said : 

2 bdr 1 bath house  In (small town) AR  $295 (2005) month  and put my partners number in the add. 

The funny thing that happened was his phone rang off the wall.  He said what do I tell them we don't own the house. 

I told him to tell them that we had just rented it, but have another one coming if they would like us to contact them when it was going to be ready. 

That is how we got our first list of contacts ,

We bought it rented it for a little more and have been buying and holding every since .

Now what i am saying in a nutshell is there's nothing wrong with thinking outside the box, You see new constructions doing that strategy all the time , pre-selling. If it was cut and dry we would all be doing the same thing.  find your strategy but always be open to new ideas.

Today  We are doing buy and hold, hold the paper on some owner finance properties,  Ira Investing and  now starting to wholesale some to improve our cash flow  

might wholesale it to another investor, rented, they will honor current lease , then they can deal with the renter.

We just made a wholesale deal on two  houses, one was empty, other has 6 months left on lease and it will be honored. At that time the decision will be made to renew or vacate property. Our buyer bought as is!

Marvin, i am not sure on mortgages, but i have had multiple purchases under 50k  using portfolio lenders in community banks, as in-house loans,  15 to 20 year amortizations, 3 to 5 year balloon.  I pay a little higher interest rate than a mortgage, but usually get purchase and rehab money. get my deal done and move onto the next one.

As long as it cash flows I can usually get it done that way. 

Tell me about your property. would you be interested in selling it?  Be direct its just another form of dialing for dollars. The worst thing that could happen is they say NO!  

That the same strategy we use with the banks,  no  ok wheres the next one !

Deisy, 

I have always said a good education is always expensive,  And I have definitely had my share of those , lawyers went after some, got a judgement, 20K  and no one has money they started a new llc and bankrupt the other , but the lawyers got another 5k from me. So I was actually out 25k, another time 2k, contractor left the state.  get multiple quotes, get referrals from other investors, most of us are willing to share.   Cheapest bid is not always the best.  And talk through your project plan before they even start.  I hired a plumbing company one time to move some plumbing in a slab, make a new utility room. opened up a kitchen wall.  The contractor that did the job, came to me with a written plan, drawn out on graph paper. and made sure that is exactly what I wanted. Did not ask for any money up front and I offered!  They finished the job in a few days as planned and got paid, I have used them multiple times now and have referred them multiple times. 

Join a local investors group and get some help there is always someone willing to help. 

I have a story to share. when my daughter was 16 learning to drive, we were going on a trip pulling a trailer  behind my truck.  I asked her if she wanted to drive ?  She said mom said I can't pull a trailer,  I asked her if she was going to be one of those women that let the world tell her what she could do? or was she going to show the world what she can do? She said she was going to show the world. Today she is very successful, A strong willed woman and wont take no for an answer . and she has a daughter that is about as strong willed as she is at 5 years old.  But they wont let me let her drive. LOL 

Cherish your strong points, get some help with your weak points, 

This is a Business, Don't let them take yours from you.  

We have sold three sfrs and the mobile home park,  Two of them were wholesale, one full market,  paid off two, and had one burn.  Have been looking for the next one all year, Made a couple of offers but there's crazy money out there being thrown around.  I am ready to buy the next one if I can find the one I want. would do a flip or two. 

I am ready for 2021. looks like we are going to wholesale a few more , just trying got figure out which ones. 

Hello Kate.  I would suggest you go talk to a local community bank, Ask for the portfolio lender and talk with them.  there are in house loans with them, there are mortgages, there are multiple options that they have access to. First time home buyers have low down low interest rate loans available. If that one does not work, go across the street and talk to the next one.  Once you buy it, you can always rent it.  One of my children has done this 9 times. Buy it, move in rehab , rent and buy another.  He has a couple of Mortages the rest are "in house' a little higher interest loans  

  I would think as far as qualifications  income is good, credit score is good,  Mortages they tend to look at income 

As far as being a landlord, look into tenant data, or something similar,  it takes a lot of the pain out of the transactions. I know better whom i am dealing with.  Has worked well for us so far. I do like the possibility of working with a pm company to learn the ropes. 

My number one NO EXCEPTION rule is . no friends, no relatives. this is a business.

As far as a year of collecting no rent.  as soon as you buy the mortgage payments start,  the insurance payments start, the taxes start, all those are fixed costs.... due every month. along with any repairs and maintenance. 

If you used the "loan" as a down payment.  You still have to make those monthly payments.

Hope this sheds a little light on your situation.  This is one guys opinion, I am sure there are many "Professionals" here that might tell you different.

We had an investor call us about a couple of lower end rentals in serious need of rehabs. We talked , they made an agreeable offer. we accepted and  should close after the first of the year , There's always the one home you could live without. Class C_D properties, that will cash flow well.  We will have a few after the first of the year in Central AR Available.