All Forum Posts by: Stephanie Drouillard

@Daniel Z Fang

I am not an expert but live in an area where slabs are very common. Most people I know that have a slab leak abandon the old pipes and instead run new lines up the walls. Would be worth bringing up to your plumber to save major money.

@Chris Gawlik

I own 3 rentals in a small, blue collar area of northern Michigan. They have all rented out quickly (less than 2 weeks) but I make sure to "upgrade" them more than what other local landlords do and offer market rent. All cashflow between $200-$300 a month after setting money aside for capex, repairs, vacancy. All of our tenants have paid on time, with no complaints. When a repair is needed we handle it right away, with our trusted local handyman. We do live here and self-manage and have a great relationship with our tenants. Decent rentals are hard to come by, since we live in a "vacation town" a lot of the previous rentals have now turned into Airbnbs. A lot of our family thinks we should jump in the Airbnb wagon, but we prefer to provide quality and affordable housing to the people in our community. I do believe hands on is a must for c class neighborhoods.

@Matthew John

Wow! Very nice job- super inspiring! I'm wondering how you funded your duplex deal that you closed on after this one? Did you use a conventional loan again with your mom as a co signer?

@Kiwi Mills Yes, those are great points and I love the idea of running the numbers to include the higher interest rate to see how it plays out. I have started to look at different hard money lenders and it looks like the lowest they will lend is 50k. A lot of the properties around me are less than 50k. Do you happen to know any that lend for less than 50k?

@Kyle Miller nice to see a local investor here! I have not heard of them, I will check it out. Thanks.

@Tom S. Thank you for your ideas. We are currently using small credit unions. I will feeling the same way about hard money lenders, mostly worried about the high interest rate.

I'll look more into 401K loans- If I remember correctly those are FHA loans that include rehab costs?

Hello, I live in northern Michigan where rentals are in high demand (not many apartment complexes). I currently own one rental that is cash flowing about $200/month and am in the process of closing on another. Our loan officer told us we are pushing it close with our DTI ratio so I know this will be the last conventional loan for a bit. The day that our offer was accepted on the house we are closing on I received 2 calls from my direct mail marketing-both are interested in selling! I would love to purchase these houses since I am confident I could get them under value and rent them out quickly. My question is what other financing options can I consider to buy these? I proposed the idea of seller financing (land contract here in MI) but both sellers are older and wanted to get cashed out. Would a hard money lender make sense in this situation? If so, the other issue is I would be buying these houses for about 30K which most HML's will not lend on. Any other ideas out there?

Any ideas or help are appreciated! 

@Alex K. Absolutely, that is what makes me cautious of this type of deal.

@Zack Thiesen

Thank you, I will definitely listen to that!

We currently have enough saved for a 15% down payment for our next rental property. When I called the bank to get pre-qualified they told me that we are able, but are very close to being denied because of our debt to income ratio. I already know this would be the last loan the bank would give us for a rental property. This has me thinking and researching about creative seller financing options and I stumbled upon sandwich lease options. This option is intriguing, and has me wondering what other investors out there think. If you had a chunk of money for investing would you spend it as the down payment on 1 rental house, or use it many times as 'option money' for sandwich lease options?  I am leaning towards the down payment route just because it is familiar to me, but I know in the near future I need to get more creative if I want to keep making money in real estate!