All Forum Posts by: Brian Smartt

Holly Baldwin -- Thank you! AZ is a great place to invest with so many homes on the market and in foreclosure - there are still some good deals out there!

Brendan J. -- Thank you! I'm pumped up to be on here and cannot wait to start learning. I have so many questions, but hesitant to ask, as i'm sure I can find 99% of the answers in the forums/blogs. Hope to see you around!

Brandon Turner -- Thank you! eBay is like real estate -- buy low, sell high, right? It's a good gig if you know where to get items cheap. Been doing it since I was 15 -- so if you need help or have questions let me know. Enjoy your week!

Thank you everyone for your helpful advice. The post was poorly written and I apologize for even posting it. I by no means HAVE to move. The problem I left out is, I drive 44 miles one way to work, which is an hour and 20 mins each way. It gets old. A home in a neighborhood i've always wanted to live in, is in foreclosure and I wanted to buy it -- the home is base bones, but has awesome potential. It's also only 7 miles away from my job. My common sense tells me to rent out my current home, but fear overtakes me that it will be trashed. I just was hoping to get some ideas. I appreciate everyones help and in the future will do a better job explaining.

Gerry Kielman - Very good advice, the new home would be 5100 sq ft with a basement. My current home is two stories. In AZ basement homes are much better, especially in summer.

Ben Hughes -- Just want to be closer to work, so I have more free time to spend doing other things.

Albert Hasson - can a rental application be found online and how do I screen the tenants? Is there a guide (im sure this site has one - just have to dig for it). I had two property managements Co come look at the home, one says $1975/mo, the other said $2150/mo. Both include me paying the HOA and landscaping. The home does NOT have a pool.

Jimmy Hong - I would like to be my own property manager -- but I dont know how to screen a tenant? What if I didnt want tenants to have pets -- how would I ever really know if they were following my guidelines until its to late and the baseboards are chewed up and the carpents are urinated on?

Thanks again everyone for your advice and responses.

Bryan H. -- I'm not really sure how to respond to this. I spoke to an attorney who suggested I do this. I was over 50% under water and he didnt see me ever going positive on it. His advice worked and i'm glad I did it at the time.

Mike D. -- 4,200 sq ft is decent size, but the floor plan isnt the best and I run one of my business from home, which uses a good amount.

Albert Hasson -- Very good advice - this is the kind of advice I was looking for. Do you know of any nice property management groups? Maybe ones you've used? The two i've contacted are in in QC and Gilbert -- checking there sites, my home would be the highest rental on either one which has me nervous.

Hello everyone, i'm new to the site and thought I would jump in and ask a question that i've been bouncing around for weeks now. This may turn out to be a long read and I apologize. I bought a home in the middle of 2007 in Queen Creek, AZ -- it was my first home. I paid $330,000 + $108,000 in upgrades. The house is 4,200 sq ft and was built by Taylor Woodrow(Morrison now). The market tumbled after my purchase and I was quickly upside down. In 2010 I went through a hardship and spoke to B of A about helping me out. They ignored me, even after I filled the paperwork out, for about 5 months. I finally decided I was going to call them and tell them I would be mailing them the keys to the house. I was going to move into a rental property my father owned in Chandler. Shortly after my call to them I got some paperwork overnighted to me, which was about 50 pages. The following day I came home and there was a white van in my driveway, it was BofA....a long story short - they offered to take $66,000 off the loan (I had a 1st and 2nd - the second was $66,00 and change). They also lowered my interest rate from 4.5% to 2.0% for 30 years. After I had an attorney review it - I signed it and ended up staying. Now, I have the opportunity to move to a larger home in a better neighborhood.
THE PROBLEM : Do I rent the house out or sell it? The house payment is $1220 and the HOA is $105/mo. Landscaping for front/back is $50 every two weeks. A property managmenet Co. said it would rent for $2150/mo. I'm worried that this wouldnt be a good rental -- there are a ton of upgrades in the home - built in movie theatre room, an expensive staircase - just the oils from fingers leave tons of marks, same with all the cabinets. My gut tells me the house would get trashed and I would end up having to pay more in rehab after then I would get in rent. BUT, if I sell it now i'd lose a lot. I owe around $355k, value is at $298k.

What would you do in this situation? There are 800+ homes in my community and the average for upgrades per new home was $32k. I went way above because it was my first home and I simply made bad decisions and got carried away.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

-Brian S.

Hey everyone! My name is Brian Smartt and i'm about to be 30 years old. I'm originally from Napa, CA but now living in AZ. I had a home built in Queen Creek AZ in 2007 before the market tumbled. This is my only RE experience.
I'm an owner of two eBay businesses and I work a full time job too. I'm very motivated, driven, and opened to learning everything I can about RE.
I'm looking to meet other people in the East Valley of AZ who are interested in Flipping houses and/or buying rental investments. If there are any other newbies out there that want to partner up or bounce ideas please feel free to write me.

Look forward to growing and learning from everyone on here!
-Brian

P.S. - I know! I know! I need a pic, i'll have one up by the weekend!