All Forum Posts by: Tom Sylvester

Hello. My partner and I are set to close on a duplex in two days. We did not get an inspection, because my dad walked through and checked it out (he has been in construction for 30 years and owns property himself). The seller told us there was a new tear off roof put on in '06 with only 1 layer of shingles. We just had a tenant tell us that they only replaces some of the outer section of the roof and that the middle has 4 layers. From looking at the roof, the whole thing seems to be new and it does not appear to have 4 layers on it.

Needless to say, we need to get this figured out. I plan to call the seller and see what he says when I present this to him. If he still claims it was new in '06, I plan to have him put it in writing and sign it. If not, I will try to get the purchase price knocked down.

What do you guys think of this situation and what are my options?

Thanks.

Well, good news. I talked to the mortgage broker that we used when purchasing our own home. We can get a mortgage through them which only requires us to put 10% down. I will be meeting with the ladyy on Monday to discuss the details.

The for the advice. We ended up finding another company that would give us a mortgage, and we only need to put 10% down.

There is another property that I am looking at now. It is a 4plex. It was listed with an agent several months ago, then before I got a chance to look at it it went under contract. It recently came back on the market, but when my agent talked to the listing agent he said it was still under contract. But I got word from a friend that the listing was going to expire and the sellers wqould take $30,000 for it (they have it listed for $49,000. Gross rents are $1650 with all apartments rented, but one of the apartments is vacant now as they were in the process of rehabbing it.

So I'm going to start looking for more funding for that.

Basically... We do not have much appreciation, but you can find cheap houses to cashflow all day. Now if only I could find the financing...

Would you ask someone's advice who has no experience in what you are trying to accomplish? Most likely not. This is the reason you should not seek advice from your family. Talk to people are are succesful doing what you want to do.

I would just create one based on what information you want to find out. I would also suggest offering an incentive, like a $25 rent credit or something to get a better response rate.

Ok. I made a post a few weeks ago regarding a deal that my partner and I put under contract - http://forums.biggerpockets.com/viewtopic.php?t=13909.

We were planning to put 20% down and get a mortgage for the rest ($20,000). I just talk to the guy we were planning on getting our mortgage through and he told us our application would most likely get denied because we don't have a lot of liquid assets (only a few thousand a piece) and because our debt to income ratio is too high. He said our credit is great and we obviously know how to manage our debt, but it is too high at this point fr them to consider such a small loan.

So... we need some advice on how to finance this deal. Our closing date is December 30th. I'm thinking we are going to have to find a private investor or find a HML.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Why not use a combination of both?

I'm am just starting out, so take my my advice with a grain of salt.

Iif you don't have to use your cash, why should you? I believe you want to have as much of your own money available as you can. Like John said, if the seller is willing to wait around while you get financing, why not put 20% down and get a conventional loan. If your houses were each $60,000, you could put $12,000 down on each, you could purchase 25 houses (maybe a few less when you factor in closing costs). This would leave you money available to purchase a house all cash at a big discount if the right deal came along.

Or, with 300k, you might be able to buy an apartment complex with the cash you have as th down payment.

Well, got the contract signed for $26k. Now all of the fun begins. Closing is on or before December 30th.

Good news, we got the house. The owner called me today and said the other buyer had a family emergency and had to back out. (I am still wondering if there actually was another buyer). Anyways, the guy said he wanted to get $27,000 for it. The "other guy" was going to buy it for $26,500. We agreed upon a price of $26,000. I am meeting him tomorrow to get the contract signed.

I'll keep this thread updated as things progress.