All Forum Posts by: Scott Lewis

Hey David, 

One of the huge advantages to RE is it's the only investment out there you can get 100% control of the asset by putting up 25% (investment loan down payment) of the asset. 

Is there a particular reason you're looking to buy for cash and keep the cash tied up in the property? 

You might want to check out threads on BRRR.

If you're looking to push your appraisal value, then bedroom ALL DAY. That way your property gets lumped into 4 bdrm comps instead of three bdrm comps which will give you a better appraisal.

Also, another bedroom opens your renter pool as well, a nicer kitchen does not.

That way if you're renting to a family of four (mom/dad, 2 kids) that gives them an extra room for guest/play/office etc.

Do some inexpensive kitchen upgrades (paint cabinets, new hardware, backsplash) and put the rest towards the new room.

You should've asked him what his offer was. Maybe it's worth selling. I always handle the calls with a bit of humor and end with telling them I will remove them from our mailing list so we won't bother them in the future.

Sometimes angry callers are the easiest to deal with if you can lighten the mood because at the end of the day, they picked up the phone and called you.

If you haven't already, I would text him back and say, "thank you for reaching out and I'll take you off my list and not bother you again."

Mike, I'm a vet and if you have a down payment and good credit, a VA loan is not the best choice. While everyone tells you there is no PMI, there is the funding fee (unless you currently have a disability rating which waives the funding fee, then a VA loan is a good choice) which makes the VA loan expensive.

If you're looking to get into a multiunit property, I recommend finding one that needs some loving, use an FHA 203k loan to purchase and renovate the property, move into one of the units and then refi into a conventional loan.

If you've down the deal right, your renovations should force appreciate the property enough to give you the LTV necessary for conventional financing without PMI. (My wife and I did this on our primary home and I refi'd into a VA loan, but I have a disability rating so no funding fee.)

And you might be eligible to get a refund on the upfront PMI required for the FHA loan.

I'd use the white one, and change the second page background color to the same red as your logo and use white text.

The human eye is attracted to red and that will also eliminate your logo background issue.

Also, you have three different phone numbers on your flyer. Might be confusing to some sellers.

Hi Jake,

Any chance you can change the investment? I dont know how much you put down, but you might be able to get a refi and renovate loan and renovate the units to make them nicer (i.e. higher rent) as well as potentially adding more units to the building if your zoning will allow it. 

If you do the work yourself (using a GC) you might be able to force appreciate the property and if you can add two or four more units, you might be able to double your rent while adding a much less to your mortgage. 

You'll have to check with a lender, but if it's four unit place it might qualify for FHA 203 funding. The caveat here is I dont know if you could use this loan to expand to a larger place and I'm not 100% positive you can use FHA for multi-unit that isnt your primary residence. In short, there are refi and renovate loan products out there that you could us. Also, if you expand past four units, you'll need commercial financing.

Hope this helps.

Hi Tony,

Depends on the tax rate your area charges. On the sell side DC, we use 2.2% for taxes (recordation and transfer), 6% for RE, and 1.8% for misc BS charges from the title company. We're usually a bit high, but better than low.

Be sure to also include closing costs on the buy side as well. Most places it is customary for the buyer and seller to pick up some of the tab. For us, we also use 10% on the buy side as well because we're usually buying from distressed sellers and covering closing costs is part of our service.

Hi Reed,

What exactly are you asking about lien waivers? We mainly use a basic lien waiver from my contractor saying there are no liens and will be no liens levied against the deed of our project for non payment of vendors or labors associated with the project.

Hope this helps. (Also, the founders of Spartan Home Buyers are both originally from MI.)

Art Allen is spot on when he said you should've consulted the building department first and determined what level of renovations trigger permitting requirements. It's different in every state/municipality.

As far as the building guys saying you need to bring the house up to code, in DC, if you open the walls, you'd better be prepared to update the guts of the house, because if the inspector sees a problem, you bet the $40k a year bureaucrat will exercise what little power they have in life.

My recommendation is to work with these guys and let them think they're winning and see if one of them will show you a loop hole in the code (there always is one) or hire a contractor that is better at navigating the bureaucracy (often our course of action) and see if he can help you.

Spartan Home Buyers is looking for investors to take equity positions in a Capitol Hill condo conversion in Washington, DC.

The ROI is 40% over 15 - 18 months, we need a total of $1.25M from no more than 5 investors, and the funding is due NLT 01 Oct 2015. .

We have a complete deal package put together that outlines the details of the project.

If you are interested, please email me at [email protected].