All Forum Posts by: Robin L.

@Jorge Ruiz Thanks so much, that's a great plan and thanks for taking the time to walk me through it. Sounds like a good option for us. 

@Account Closed we thought about this, but my husband isn't quite comfortable with tying up that much of our money (cash and equity) just yet. We balance each other out as I'm "high risk high reward" and He's the more conservative of the two. 

My husband and I have so far flipped two houses by living in them and doing most of the work ourselves. Now we're trying to get started on our first buy and hold with the BRRRR strategy. We've saved up about $30k of our own money to put into this investment. We found a property with an ARV of $230k, needs about $30k in updates and we're hoping to get it for $120k.

Since our credit scores are good and we have solid income, we got prequalified with a big national bank easily, the problem is we would have to use a good chunk of that $30k for the 20% downpayment and then not have enough funds for the rehab. 

What are our options besides private money? (we're not against private money but so far it's been hard to find due to our newbie status) Should we try hard money loans? What should we look for/be aware of in a hard money lender scenario? What about crowdsourcing like Patch of Land?

Thanks in advance!

We know several people who have rented out their basements, but they were not a full apartment like ours. We have two different parties interested in renting out our basement already, I'm showing it this weekend so I really need to figure out where to price it. I agree I feel that it should be a lot lower than a house, like $900-$1100. 

Didn't know that about the unit number. It has one entrance/exit to the outside and one door to the stairs that go up to the main part of the house. It also has a door that goes to a workshop space that has a entrance/exit to the outside. But we are going to keep the door to the stairs and to the shop locked, so not sure if that counts. 

We were going to include internet in the "utilities." There are 3-5 bedroom houses going for $1800-$2800 depending on size and how nice the finishes are. I  would say our finishes are middle of the road--they were done recently (about 4 years ago) so they're newer, but they're not high end. 

So we bought a house with a fully finished basement, it's a 2 bed, 1 bath with a full kitchen (fridge, sink, stove) and washer/dryer hook ups with it's own separate entrance and paved parking pad. We're looking into renting it out since we're never down there anyway and had a few questions:

1. Pricing: I have been looking on zillow, craigslist and hotpad but everything else on the market is much larger and much more expensive, typically 3+ bedroom homes, so I'm having a hard time calculating how much we should be asking. 

2. Utilities: Since it's the basement connected to our house, we pay the utilities, not sure how to factor that into the rent?

3. Mail: I'm thinking of putting it in the rental agreement that they need to get a PO box and not have mail delivered here, just to keep it simple. Or is there an easier way to do this?

4. Other factors: since these people will be living below us, it's a different situation than a stand alone rental on the other side of town. What unique factors should I be considering?

Thanks!

The big banks won't even talk to me as I am a stay at home mom with no verifiable income and my name is on the mortgage on my home. Are there small local banks or credit unions who are more lax on this? Are there other lenders I should be thinking of besides just banks?

Any of my friends are struggling to make ends meet so I don't really have any friends with extra cash. 

I would love to find a mentor in my area but not sure how to do that? There are events in the area for real estate agents but I'm not sure how to find a true real estate investor, know what I mean?

I have been doing a lot of reading and research on real estate investing and feel I have at least a solid elementary understanding. I've even found a few good deals in my area and done the math on repairs, estimated value, rental rates etc. But I am still confused as to how to finance these deals. How did you get the money for your first deal? 

Yes, it does seem that most real estate agents will advise that I use a real estate agent, I expected that. 

I am looking into a flat fee agency. It sounds like the best of both worlds. I can do a lot of work the sellers agent would do--staging, pictures, open houses, etc. but I have the real estate agent to help with the MLS listing, contract and legal stuff. The flat lit agent gets a cut, I save money, I still pay the buyers agent, sounds like a win-win-win (at first glance--still researching it).

Contracts in this area are fill in the blanks and pretty standard. I have bought and sold in this state and seen all the forms before, it seems like it would take less than 5 minutes for an agent to fill it out. As I said before, it's a cookie cutter neighborhood, brand new home, and I have a recent appraisal in hand, pretty easy transaction all things considered. So a flat fee listing might be the way to go. 

 Exactly. I can get it ready, take photos, list, adverse, show... but Im afraid of all the legal documents to get it to close!