All Forum Posts by: Ryan Evans

I second what @Don Petrasek said. Triplexes are harder to come by but they are out there. A couple of years ago I picked up a duplex with a single family house on the same lot. Those kinds of deals are rare but can be great it your kind of situation. 

Finishing out a third floor of a duplex can be a great option as well but it's going to take some cash to get it done. 

A bunch of my rentals are in 44110. It is VERY hit or miss. It's easy to lose money there but values in certain areas have almost doubled since I started buying there a few years ago. 

People from California and Israel are overpaying for a lot of the properties there and are a driving force for the price increases. 

It sounds like you're in for trouble on this one. Who's the wholesaler? That might tell us if you're about to get screwed or not. You probably know this by now, but you should never use comps from the people trying to sell you a property for more than it's worth which is 99% of wholesale deals. 

Even if your ARV is at the average $86k that you've stated, you're still looking at some major expenses to make it a nice property. If you want to make those repairs to bring it up to a good standard, we're talking probably 10k for a garage, 10k driveway, and conservatively 10k for windows and a roof if it's not a big house. I see these kinds of wholesale deals all the time and it would be a different story if the ARV was 100k+, but its tough to make them work here.

Unless you're getting this thing for dirt cheap, you're taking on a lot of risk for what I imagine is very little equity. 

As for inspections, that's on you to pay for and you can decide whether or not to give it to the seller. If you need to back out because of something you found on the report than you may need to provide that part of the inspection to get out of the contract easier. 

I see bidding wars here all the time. Though, it really depends where you're looking and what property classes. 

Hi all, I'm strongly considering seller financing one of my duplexes in Cleveland. I own it outright and it's a cash flow machine even with a loan on it - It's worth around 70k and rents for $1,350. I'd just rather free up a bit of cash for some other business ventures and don't feel like listing it for various reasons, even though I'm a realtor. Partially, to spread out the tax burden, it could keep some money coming in every month, and lets me get a deal going without the prep work needed to get it totally market ready and maximize my price point. 

My question is this, what are the big considerations or things to look out for when structuring a deal like this to minimize headaches and risk for both sides?  I want to have terms that make the worst-case scenarios very cut and dry such as if I were to have to foreclose, if the property faces significant damage or mismanagement, or if the buyer isn't able to cash me out at the end. 

I'd be looking for at least a 20k down payment and probably a 2-3 year term with a negotiable interest rate. 

I'll have my attorney get the docs together, but I want to see if the BP veterans might have some lessons learned! 

Seems like a viable strategy. Though, have you already cleared whether or not the seller is open to owner financing?It's pretty uncommon to find someone who will go that route. I pose the option once in a while to sellers but wouldn't put it in writing unless they're open to looking at terms. Usually, it's a pretty quick and hard "no." 

 This is great stuf! It doesn't happen often, but this might just be my new strategy! 

What was your fee on this? It's gotta be a big one to be worth the time. You'll probably be better off cutting your losses and putting the focus into getting another deal going. The seller can probably find all kinds of ways to drag it out and waste your money on attorney fees until you give up. 

Keep in mind, whether or not you approve of wholesaling, you're almost always going to need to pay cash to buy those deals. Sure, hard money is an option, but it doesn't usually pencil out for under 100k properties even if you can find a lender. 

There are a bunch of areas where you can buy good houses for 70-80k that will cash flow immediately. You buy those all day long over in Garfield Heights, Maple Heights, Euclid, etc.. They might not be home runs, but it could get you going and they don't have a lot of headaches if you buy right. 

I second what @Jacob Repreza said, but I probably wouldn't use BP to find an agent at all. It doesn't take much to promote yourself here. When you're looking at properties, at least on the MLS, you'll see the same names coming up a lot in certain price points and areas since a lot of agents specialize. It's not a bad idea to find one who operates in your niche that way and then ask around some validation.