All Forum Posts by: Tamara Deering

@Eli Rollins

I was listening to a BP podcast and one suggestion was to offer a choice to the student, a 12-month lease at your normal rate or a 9-month lease at a higher monthly rate, essentially your 12 month rate divided by 9.  The thinking was that some students might be around in the summer working an internship or something and want the 12 month rate, and other students (or their parents) are willing to pay a higher rate for the shorter term so they aren't locked in.  The key take away was that everyone likes choices.

Any of the BP books will help you with that, as will listening to podcasts and reading the forums. If you spend enough time around these boards you will pick it up pretty quickly. For a quick primer - ARV is as repaired value, what the property will be worth after you fix it up, as is - what the property is worth now, LTV - loan to value the ratio between how much the property is worth and how much you are borrowing, LTC - loan to cost the ratio between the purchase price of the home and the loan you are asking for, points - a point is 1 percent, usually used in terms of the origination fee for a loan. All of the terms are financing terms - they come up when you are trying to secure funding. There are tons more, just google them when they come up.

Granite Shoals is a recreation community in the Hill Country of Texas the lots are cheap for a reason.  There will be covenants and restrictions on building, the resale of whatever you build will be slower than in a more metropolitan area, and because this is a man made lake the water levels fluctuate.  Much of Texas is in a drought and if it worsens the lake levels may get quite low.

Welcome @Harry Standafer

I feel your pain about professionals not living up to my expectations which leads me to do everything myself which frankly is just stupid on my part.  I have decided that my problem with professionals is I expect them to know what I expect out of them because it seems like it's their job.  But the truth is they don't know, so I think the secret is to be forthright about your expectations for the professionals in question and find out if they will do those things or not.  That way they can let you know up front that they understand what you want and if they don't perform you can go back to the agreed up standards and let them go.  If you get a lot of push back run your expectations through the forum and see if what you are asking for is realistic.

Good luck to you in your future endeavors.

@Jack S.

It sounds like you're off to a brilliant start and you've got everything dialed in.  According to all of the podcasts I've been listening to the next steps would be to 1. identify your current spending habits and see if there is anything that you are mindlessly spending money on, eliminate it and add those funds to your investment pool.  2.  review your process, identify anything that you are doing that doesn't make sense for you to do, farm that out, and spend your time doing the high value parts of your business closing deals.  3.  if possible in your market, start looking for larger properties to increase your number of doors.  One last thought, I'm not going to pretend to understand Brexit and the Eurozone politics but have you considered diversifying your portfolio?  Possibly holiday rentals in Portugal, Italy, Greece or Spain?  I seem to run into a lot of travelers from the UK when I travel to those places and it seems that as long as you are part of the EU you may still be able to purchase properties, whereas I as an American am pretty restricted as to what I can do.

@Account Closed

With $150,000 to invest you can probably start with larger multi-family properties.  Since you are going to be jumping way up the learning curve from the average new investor I would begin your research now.  Identify your market.  Decide where in that market you want to invest.  Identify property managers in the area, then get reviews from people on BP who have used them before.  Start identifying the local brokers and follow the sorts of deals they do.  Finally, about 2 months in advance of your return to the states start researching mortgage brokers.  I suggest using a broker rather than going to a specific bank because they have good general knowledge of rates and products.  When you get back to town you will also want to visit the local banks and credit unions and see if they have special programs in place.

Congratulations on planning ahead and saving so much while you are overseas, you have a great future ahead of you.

@Kobe Xin

Here's a link to a Biggerpockets Money podcast that addresses the issue:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/biggerpockets-money-podcast-83-scott-mindy

@Saxxon Rybski

Problem 1. you can't comp it which means appraisers can't either. This means that getting any sort of loan will be difficult.

That being said, make sure you are looking for farms and ranches and vacant land as well.  Many rural properties are listed as ranches. You will need to adjust for acreage and out buildings.  Good luck.

@Kris L.

Thanks for the clarification but I still think your time frame is too tight unless the bank has signed a short sale agreement at the asking price.  Check with the listing broker and see, even so you are looking at 2 weeks minimum to close.

@Danni Catambay

I'm sorry, a base hit is a flip that gives you $10,000 - $20,000 in profit, it's not going to make your year. If you are going to hold a property as a rental a base hit would cash flow $100 or so a month.  Perform means actually bring your cash and/or financing to the closing table a complete the purchase of a property.  If a lender talks about performing they mean a note/loan that is being paid mostly on time and is current.  A non-performing loan in lender terms is one that the borrower has stopped making payments on.