All Forum Posts by: Sebby Gabre Madhin

a little off topic, but for those who recommend filling in a pool, do you know how much that would cost?

We used them last February /March for a combination cash out refinance and new purchase. All things considered it was a positive experience. We are looking at them again now, along with Colony American and B2R because we are now ready to do cash out refinance on several more properties that we have acquired over the past year. The only issue I see for you, if you are looking to do cash out refi, is that they tend to have their best rates at fairly low LTV, so much better interest rates at 60 or 65% then at higher LTV. This may be a real issue for you if you are buying turnkey, as you will be leaving a lot of cash in the deal if you are buying anywhere close to FMV and haven't had significant appreciation, or are trying to refi without seasoning (I think they require one year seasoning now (!) It was only 6 months last year. So, look at them but make sure the numbers work for you, I'm not sure that you won't be better off with a portfolio loan from a local bank (if that is an option for you)

On the hubzu site itself, I think that there is usually a spot where they will give you the name of an agent if you don't have one. Any agent can show you Hubzu homes, minimal sign in right online, with instant access for them, so if you can't find your usual agent to show call in the newest rookie you can find to let me in. If you list a buyers agent when you sign in to bid they will get a commission. You don't lose anything or pay any more or less, as far as I can tell, so I ALWAYS include the name of an agent whether or not they've shown me the house (if you do enough Hubzu homes you figure out how to see them). In fact, I have a running joke with my favorite agent because he got several thousand in commission for a place that I bought that he never even stepped foot in.... I figure it makes up for the times he had to run all over the place to get a tiny commission on the $50k deals I love so much!

I'm with those that say that no one will take better care if our properties than we do. We have the advantage of only owning locally, but are now up to almost thirty doors. Since I have a full time job, we started by having property managers, have two groups actually (one for the southern half, one for the northern half of our target area). We are now taking properties back because of two reasons. One is that we have a network already of contractors, since we rehab the properties and therefore have a list three deep of AC guys, plumbers, handymen etc. If possible, my partner actually goes out and assesses the problem so that we don't end up sending the plumber out to open a valve to the water heater or flip a switch, which happened not infrequently with property manager who just called a work order for the most minor complaint...and marked up the price to boot! Talk about NO incentive to triage problems! The last straw for that particular manager was when we got a code violation for lawn care ---on a property that WE had already alerted the PM to contact the tenant because we had driven by 3-4 weeks before and noted the grass not well cut. They had promised to do frequent ("at least every month outside and every 3 months inside" checks) but that was a bunch of baloney. So yeah... no property manager for us as long as we are only investing locally, although I'm all for using those isolated services where they charge 1/2 month rent to find, screen and place tenant....that part I don't enjoy (and don't have time for!)

Well, here's the update:

Met with my lawyer on Monday, he reviewed and was of the opinion that nothing had been done which would void the initial contract, and that the executed PSA would still hold valid.  We were getting ready for him to send a letter to the seller/sellers agent etc to that effect, and I dropped off some additional information to his office today...but got a phone call from our agent as I was driving back to my office that the sellers had changed their minds and were now hunky dory with continuing with the sale.  Their closing company sent over the title work a few hours later, etc.

So...strange, right?  Our agent suspects that their side was just bluffing and/or maybe found out that they had not a leg to stand on once their lawyer actually reviewed the case, but who knows?  Maybe they are just hoping that we won't be able to close on the date and they get out of it that way? Bottom line is that I guess we will never know how the case would have shaken out if we needed to pursue legal action.

I would recommend a guy named Adan, I think last name is Soto. If you are a CFRI member he is a business member. His contact number is 407-7222293. He has worked with a lot of investors and has reasonable prices.

This is an occupied investment rental property, not an REO. So no, we did not do a full walk on the roof and turn on every appliance inspection before we made an offer. We did see that there was some tree damage on the roof during but the full extent of this and other issues often comes up during inspection period.

@Account Closed

That's actually very much not true, so I do have to respond to that. The cost of the repairs (which they indicated they would do) would actually cost more than what we were asking. We just wanted to make sure that repairs done right, i.e. By a roofer rather than a handyman. 

As for "asking for things after the contract was signed"-- isn't that the whole point of the inspection period?  Have you SERIOUSLY never asked for a repair or repair credit when buying real estate?  If so I think that you may be the exception rather than the norm. 

@Thomas S.   I agree with you that the most likely outcome, for this particular deal, is that we will walk unless our lawyer agrees with us AND they cave after a single letter etc.  

However, as a fairly new investor (who still has a v. high learning curve) I still think it's important to get a legal opinion before walking, if only just to learn what not to do next time...

Thanks all, and I agree this has been an interesting discussion, from what I thought to be cut and dry to a cloud if gray. I really appreciate all of your input. 

@John Thedford   Our agent has spoken to the FAR hotline, and the lawyer he spoke with said that we are right and the original contract is enforceable, they can refuse any concession/repairs but the original (FARBAR) contract stands despite rejection of the addendum.

@Franklin Romine   No, they are actually serious about cancelling, and are refusing to go ahead even with absolutely no concessions based on inspection findings.  Their agents broker is even involved, at this point, and sent a response to that effect. He actually sort of scoffed at the FAR hotline response vs his lawyers opinion.  

@Rick Santasiere  thanks for your input. I'll have to see if our lawyer can find a similar case if we decide to proceed. I think that our agent's  logic in writing up an addendum rather than just continuing with the verbal was to make it clear that we weren't looking for them to do repairs plus $$ concession, just concession.  Their agent appeared a bit confused to him so he wanted her to be clear when she spoke with her clients. I guess that this attempt to clarify has backfired on us big time!