All Forum Posts by: Rodger Wilson

My uncle used to be a commercial lender in TX. He has been retired for about 5 years. He was telling me that I should look for cap rates of 10-12% on quality strip malls.  I found a beautiful small strip mall with a 9% cap.  I believe the days of 12% cap rates are gone.  Even defunct meth labs seem to have low cap rates.

What say you?

wholesale ... it is a tough road that teaches amazing skills.

I love it!

2008 was terrific for my rentals.  It really saved my bacon. 

I am not a lawyer but my guess is that it is the best situation you could be in.  They will want to avoid legal battles.  I bet they will be perfect tenents.  Your job is not to try and figure out how is here legally.  That is the job of the US government. 

Call a lawyer.

The only piece of debt that I personally have to pay in my car payment. All of my other debt are houses with a good rate of return.  I am frustrated with banks.  Loaning to me is safe.  Loaning to a guy with two car loans a boat loan, and a mortgage is dangerous. 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Longmont.

Purchase price: $175,000
Cash invested: $175,000

This was a bank repo. It had some holes in the walls and was missing things like toilet paper roll holders. We lived in the house for 6 years and then turned it into a rental.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

It was in the right place at the right time for the right price.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

A realtor friend took us to go look at it.

How did you finance this deal?

conventional mortgage.

How did you add value to the deal?

I fixed the drywall and bought missing appliances from craigslist. I also had it repainted and had new carpet installed. Later I also upgraded the furnace and finished the basement.

What was the outcome?

The house was then worth $350k.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Living in a house and fixing it up is a really nice way to go. It also makes finding mortgages easier.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $210
Cash invested: $2,000

This is was my first investment. I paid too much for the property but when I bought it, it barely cash flowed. Now it is amazing. It plus my other property have really sparked my interest in getting back into investing.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I wanted a house after reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I talking with a realtor that owned the property.

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional mortgage.

How did you add value to the deal?

During the first 5 years when something would break I would fix it myself to save money. Now I realize this is where I probably went wrong in the deal.

What was the outcome?

2008 really helped. So many houses nearby were foreclosed on that rents really went up. Too bad I didn't have the money to buy more houses.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Buy distressed