All Forum Posts by: Jim & Michele Wilcox

College is nothing like high school. So GOOOOO.... You will never regret the years or the people you meet and stay in touch with for life.

You'll be one step ahead of eveyone's game if you get a college education now instead of years from now. Somehow, you never get around to going to college as life gets inthe way. And if you don't make it in REI - you have that college ed which will get you into many a door.

Knowledge is King! If you have the brain and the money is there to go - opportunity knocks. Answer the door. You won't regret it. At your age, think about the future, not the right now.

JMHO

Please be careful buying land in Arizona. Many of the cities posted here are not for investment purposes. Many areas are so over built that no one should be buying raw land there. Florence is building up, but it has only done so because the rest of the Phoenix area has been booming. If not for that, Florence would still be "the prison town".

Please, please watch who you deal with on vacant land in Arizona!!! There are tons of areas that are in flood plains and is virtually unusable but its still for sale.

Do your due diligence and go see the property in person! I'd hate for you to purchase some vacant land in AZ and make a very bad decision. Any land that is worth building on or holding for future is expensive. Buying outlying land is total speculation.

The Phoenix metro area is a good place. But with 100K, you'll have to go pretty far out but you can buy some acreage - and could possibly make your projected increase in value in 3 years. I would suggest your buying land in any area or state to go look at it and do due diligence before buying it. There's nothing more worthless than a worthless piece of land. Check all aspects like access, is it buildable, water, electric, flood areas, how much is usable, city codes, etc. Stay away from the 40 acre/0%down/low monthly payment land. Good luck!

If you are thinking of purchasing a home that needs minimal fix up but is livable - first time buyers can use a program called Home In 5. It is offered by many local municipalities. Check yours and find out. I think it would be offered under your housing branch of your local government or state government. It's a great program where you get 5% for a down payment or closing fees.

There is another non-profit program called Ameridream. They give 10% to buyers for downpayments. You might check this out too.

I like the idea of buying and living in the fixer upper first - especially if you don't have a lot of money and need an investor. You might give your buddies a try and see how it goes, but ...

The only investor I want is a SILENT one! LOL

There are so many answers to your questions. Your best bet is to do some reading on this forum and get a grasp of how this all works. It is confusing at first.

I agree - that's a good way to proceed - I don't know about all states, but its worth checking, if you check the tax parcel number (using the assessors info) - they show who the owner is and sometimes there is a COMP link showing homes sold in the last 5 years. This is extremely helpful. I know all states don't offer this but its worth finding out. Usually the info is online.

I agree about zillow. If you check their COMPS, they are much more accurate than the VALUEs they show. The values are not always true for every neighborhood.

Hi - thanks about the rehab cd... I felt the same way when I was looking over the group before I joined ... lots of knowledgeable people.

Hi - Like mach says - Putting a contract with an inspection contingecy is a good idea. Or most REO's are sold through RE agents. Maybe you can have the RE agent do a walk thru for you and give you a general idea of condition first. It may be a real dump and not worth a contract. He/she is going to get a commission from the bank anyway.

Hi - Thanks for the welcome. It hasn't. The rates have gone up as you know, but in new construction, you pay only interest on your loan and only for the time it takes to build the house. Rates haven't increased that much to really effect us that much. Plus, when we do spec houses, we do loans where they tack all the holding costs onto the construction loan - so we have no out of pocket expenses. Then when the house is sold - we pay off. Luckily, we've sold before the houses were finished.

For customers - they get the same type of construction loan, then move that loan into a permanent loan, usually with the same lender. They get a better interest rate if they do a construction to permanent loan. Many times we've told customers not to lock in interest rates - but they get nervous and do - then rates go down. Then they are stuck with the higher rate. Building a custom home can take a year or more so rates will fluctuate during that time. The difference in interest isn't that much but to many people its a big deal especially on an expensive house.

Hi - Thank you for the welcome. In our area - Phoenix - the prices are still increasing but the buyers are slowing down. Prices are up and sales are slower - the median house price is up too. This info is from MLS monthly reports.

We are continuing building custom homes - but I wanted to give rehabbing a try. We've done remodels, but its the customers ideas, not mine. It will be a side line for me - while we continue to build custom.

Acutally, we have quite a few new jobs coming up. There are hundreds of new houses being built - it seems like no one here knows there's a building slump.