All Forum Posts by: Richard Gaston

Ok, I finally (after busting my arse for the past couple of years) got my Credit Score high enough to qualify for a FHA mortgage BUT I need to keep my Debt/Income ratio down so I can afford the monthly payments. In order to do that I really need to purchase a house low enough in the Lakewood, WA area which will be hard seeing what the asking prices are here. So I figured the best way for me to do that is find a fixer upper that I can do sweat equity on the property, in other words I need a fixer upper that will be less then $75,000 and it needs to be 201k qualified in order to fix it which means FHA will have to do an inspection on the property to see it is in livable condition (yes I need to live in it as well). My bank is going to set me up with a Real Estate Agent, but nothing against RE Agents, they are super people, but unless they are here or an investor themselves most RE Agents won't even consider looking at a fixer upper to sell. So I am looking for an Investor who is very familiar with the Lakewood, WA area and/or know where I can find some HUD homes in this area (already looked at the HUD Store and there is nothing there, which don't mean there ain't any, just not there). I am a little picky about the area where we need to live in, just not to picky. I can explain better in detail in a PM if any investors or RE Agents here can get back to me. Don't expect it to be right away, I do have another job working graveyards and I sleep in the Day time (Vampire hours, ugh) but I will get back asap.

To the Moderators for this section, if this is not in the right place I am sorry and if it isn't please put it in the right forum, please and thank you.

I am hoping I am in the right forum for this. I have been waiting for two things, one for my older son to move up here from Mississippi and the second is for my credit score to go back up. Welp my son move up here with his family; Wife, daughter (wee I have a cute granddaughter, lol) and sister in law, that and counting my family (My wife and 13 year old son) is now a bit crowed here in my wee little 2 bedroom apartment.

For some reason my credit score dropped way down which I think I discussed it in another forum, but its now back up to over 580 (via TransUnion) which I am hoping is enough for a FHA Loan. My older son is going to help with the payments but what I am looking for is a Mortgage Broker who knows how to work miracles with FHA and a Real Estate Agent who can do HUD Homes here in Lakewood, Washington. I don't mind doing sweat equity nor does my son and his family, we just need MORE room it is crowded here lol.....

Once I get that settled I am looking (or should say still looking) to get back into Real Estate Investments, I am networking here in Lakewood and found a couple of Investors who can steer me in the right direction, found a couple of other newbies as well who are now here thanks to me referring them lol, and still listening to the Podcasts that I find concerning Real Estate Investing which I am learning alot, thanks Brad for the connections, but as I said above I was trying to fix my credit score,  but instead of going up it went down to a low score of 503, it finally went back up and I am hoping it still goes up, but as I said I am in desperate need of getting out of this apartment into something bigger. So I am looking for any kind of help, please and thank you for anyone steering me in the right direction.... :)

@Ed Larson Sent you a Request to hook up. I am new to Tax Liens so am still learning it, basically just found out about it about a year or so ago and decided to check on it to see what the big hype is all about, one how one can purchase a Tax Lien and then owning the property for the Taxes Owed, sounds like something I maybe interested in to purchase my own personal property, or fix and flips as well.

@Ed Larson Can you elobarate, please?

Ok, I had to put the business on the back burner for a bit, my eldest son just moved up here from Mississippi along with my grand-daughter (woo hoo). And I was waiting on him to move up here in Washington, I am letting him jump on board to make it a Family Venture, wee this is going to be fun.

This is just a general question so all answers would be appreciated thank you, but I am looking (just looking mind ya lol) on how Tax Liens work in the State of Washington, or do they use Tax Certificates here, that and how does one get the house after paying on the taxes. I have seen a lot of info about it but am still wondering how it works, may consider that as an option. Thanks for any and all feedback.

@Carlos Burgo Howdy in Slidell, I have kin there in Slidell, how is the weather :) ok first as the other guys were mentioning, how much are your relitives willing to sell is your key factor, seeing that you said they are practical giving you the house I am assuming its a low ball price. You need to factor that in, then you need to find a very good General Contactor (or if you're good at it yourself you can do this yourself) figure how much its going to cost in repairs. Then follow the others advice on figuring the ARP (After Repair Price), this is whats going to be almost your final figure, after you figure in the price you paid for the house, the repair costs and other expenses that you're going to need to pay at closing, find a very good Private Lender or Hard Money Lender, get a loan. Most of those guys don't worry about credit ratings all they worry about is if the house is worth it with the After Repair Value which as J.J. said, then they will loan you the needed funds which will pay for the house and all the needed repairs, make sure you read up on their terms of agreement though, part of the funds for the house will be repairs and they will pay in incriments (stages) so a very good GC who works with Private Lenders or Hard Money Lenders who knows the rules will be a very valuable asset to you. If you're still not sure about anything, ask one of the experts here and I am sure they will be more then happy to walk you through the details. Happy Investing :)

I also did a search as well, must be another company. The one I was looking at is based in the UK and the name of one of the principal members is the same as the one that sent me an email. BUT in doing a complete search though I found out that someone is actually using the person's name and scamming people. The principal member of the business did not know about any loans being offered and is a bit miffed that someone is using his name as well as the name of the business to scam people into thinking they are getting loans, in order to get a loan from this scammer he asks that you send $300 USD to cover costs etc, then you don't see your money anymore nor do you get a loan. Quite a few people fell for the scheme. Just not me, I really wanted to make sure I wasn't being scammed so I did a really good search and found out the info. The funny thing is even though InterPol has been contacted about this person, he is still at it (the scammer).

@Jason Eyerly  Sorry if I seem all over the place, sometimes I get excited like a kid (lol I am 56 this month), even more so when I have been up all night working at my J.O.B. lol. I tried to talk the guy down to working price that would work for my numbers to work right and still make a decent profit, and have another investor make a decent profit after they fix the bathroom. The way the guy made it sound I had assumed that the house was a 2-Story but come to find out it was a one-story Tudor with a finished basement changed to an 1 bedroom Apartment. which explained to me how the upstairs was a 2 bedroom/1 bath where the downstairs was a 1 Bedroom/1 bath. The main floor bathroom is the one that needs to be repaired, repairs should not be over $10,000 plus from what I understand the title is in someone elses name as well, so unless I could talk to the other person as well, which I was and am assuming is his wife, I couldn't really negotiate the price without her ok.

Sorry about not posting anything for a bit, after I ran some numbers I couldn't get them to work right so I asked a RE Agent/Broker to help me out with this one, she was very helpful and did some comps for me. After she looked it over and ran some numbers come to find out I needed to get a lower price, way lower then what he was asking. I was just getting ready to get it under contract, but after the Broker gave me the numbers and I figured it up to the ARV, the numbers starting working right.

@Mike Sumsky  if you want to look at it I think I still have the address somewhere, email me at [email protected] I will be more then happy to let you give it a try, word of warning though he wants about $60k higher then what we determined it was worth, he said it was appraised at $150K and that was at the time the Real Estate Bubble burst AND about the time prices of Real Estate in that area oh heck all over for that matter, was coming down.

@Jason Eyerly  I was trying to do the 70% 30% before I asked a RE Agent/Broker to help me out, the numbers were just not adding up, after she looked it over and then got me some comparisons we determine the best course of action at a lower price, once we figured the ball park price would be at, the numbers started coming together to where everyone would win, but he didn't want to play ball lol...

I didn't even know the change was taking place, lol @Brandon Turner looks great and the print is bigger for my tired old eyes lol, easier to read. I have already turned on several of my new RE Investor friends to this site to answer their questions about RE Investing, I hope they like the new revamp ;)