All Forum Posts by: Terre B.

@Tim Trumble the inaccuracies are Naca's representative. I'm stating exactly what I was told at the first seminar. I went with very high hopes. I came away feeling like I'd been to a seminar for a sleezy investor. I have nothing against NACA other than they wasted 3 hours of my time.

I'm not going to debate here, what I was told vs what your concept is.  They are NOT the same thing.  

Perhaps YOU should come here and attend the next NACA presentation. Not as a NACA representative, but as a potential homeowner. And see just how badly your company was represented.

I was very disappointed. I'm in a $$$ market such as you. NACA is misleading. 0 down. yes. low interest? only if you buy down. And thankfully I knew what the presenter was talking about, since she didnt.

The bigger catch that caused multiple people to walk out, was their reserve requirements. $15K for closing costs. Plus if you are going to have any payment shock, you must put the difference between what your rent is, and your estimated housing PITI payment into a savings account for that as well. For a year. Over and above the reserve/closing requirement. I have a 750 credit score, and when I questioned her on the time frame, she estimated it would be two years before I would receive "permission papers" to buy a home through NACA.

I took my daughter, who is a first time home buyer, looking for options.   She kept looked at me and asked "how is this better?  CHFA does the down payment grant, $1000 out of pocket, I'm preapproved for $300K.  Can't I buy down the interest rate on it? "

I spoke with the other volunteer at the meeting (you are required to pay a membership fee and donate time to the cause) he said he was about to give up.  He has provided the documents needed 3 times, and they keep getting lost.  He is on his 5th loan officer, starting over each time, since no one has a clue what the previous one had done.  He also said that they do a hard pull on his credit each time documents are uploaded, or he gets a new LO, and his credit is now 40 points lower than when he started. 

Denver is a tough market, and since the presenter mentioned, repeatedly, that NACA was desperate for hiring presenters and LOs, I looked at their site. $14 an hour for a presenter. $8 an hour for an LO, plus what appeared to be a very convoluted commission structure. You can't buy a doghouse in Denver with an income of $14 per hour.

I really liked the sound of the NACA program, and the ideals behind it. The reality was something different. Maybe not as bad in a better market.

I explored NACA. Attended the first meeting. If you are on food stamps, need to be taught how to budget, and have a couple of years to get yourself in a position to buy, maybe. The person that made the presentation did not know that NACA will do multi unit. She did not understand the questions put to her about using rental income to help qualify. Google NACA and read the reviews.

@Noah. Have you looked at your county or community to see if they have a program to help with down payment? There are a lot out there, and some work for 1-4 units FHA. That frees up your cash as a cushion for reserves and emergencies.

What about offering them to move into the other side, at an appropriate rent?  If they know they have to move, that would be an easier and cheaper move for them, you could write a  new lease.  If they know they have to move one way or another, they aren't going to find a below market rent in this town.  Obviously, you'd have to ensure they could afford, but it'd also save you the hassle of hunting down a new tenant

Hopefully staging will help, but other than that, it's pretty bland vanilla.  Kinda boring.  

The front curb appeal is non existant.  If I'm out with my realtor on Saturday to look at houses, I'm going to see 10.  Of those ten, 7 have red brick,  9 will have semi dormant grass, and  a yellowish brown color palatte.  Inside, its a given white kitchen cabinets, white subway tile, bland granite.  (Yawn).  That flipper couple on TV with the messy divorce, (name escapes me atm) have been doing that color scheme for at least 5 years.  

Basically, there is absolutely nothing to make your house memorable.  No WOW factor.  I don't know what your budget is on the flip, but before I dropped the price again, I'd see what I could do with $5K to give it some WOW.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/617975-first-flip-completed-successfully-w-pics-and-numbers

This thread, they gave this house some WOW.  I don't care if its on a freeway, if I were househunting, that one would stick in my mind.   That kitchen and that bath would totally outweigh the negatives.

My experience from having bought a 1908 property, was it wasn't so much the knob and tube, and the 14 different DIY'ers who'd touched it in the meantime.  1  20Amp fuse, to cover kitchen and bath?  Not in this day and age of half a dozen small appliances. 

I've fought this, successfully.  Landlord tried to bill me for carpet that was used when I moved in, and I was there 4 years.  I avoided court.

I looked up the statutes for my state, and wrote them a letter, sent certified.  Stated that, upon speaking with an atty, here was the situation.  Carpet was at least 1 year old when I moved in, and I was there 4 years, therefore 5 years old.  Quoted the statutes about wear and tear, and life expectancy to them.  Advised them I would be happy to meet them in court to discuss this, but my atty charges $xxx per hour, and if they failed to prevail in court, I would counter sue for relief, for both my lost time and his fees.  

I never heard from them again.

wow.  Different states certainly have a considerable difference in regulations.  I had no idea you couldn't raise rents as you wish.  Interesting.

@Erin Auman  You'd be better off searching on this site for lease option information.  What I did was back in the 90s, and I don't know if you can structure a deal to give them credit for rent paid, which is part of what I had.  

As I recall, we rented for $1200 a month (in 1997) and $200 a month would go towards down payment/closing.  I had an option to buy at $135K.  I knew nothing whatsoever about buying a house, but this place was a white elephant oddity...bottom floor concrete block, upper floor double wide modular..on a flag pole lot, with no landscaping whatsoever, 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, bad subflooring,  one bedroom had been "converted" to a ...spa?  with a hot tub and this huge 8x8 cedar sauna... ( I could go on, but...)  In the 12 months, we fixed the landscaping, ripped out the subfloor, replaced it and carpeted, ripped out the hot tub and sauna.  (sold on craigslist, which paid for the used carpet).  

Our work combined with a roughly 10% appreciation at that time, and it appraised for $175K and somehow our "lease option" allowed us to buy it as a refinance, and the appreciation counted as our down.   As I recall it was a $135K mortgage at 11.5% (again it was 1997!) and I had to suck it up and pay that for the two years I had a prepayment penalty.  I don't think you can do that kind of loan now. 

You would have to select a tenant capable of making the renovations, sweat equity.  You'd need to work the numbers as a win for you and them.  You'd have to be sure they were going to qualify for the property at the amount you want for it at the end of the lease.  They would have a vested interest in making the value of the property increase, and it sounds like there is room for it.  I see it as a win/win.  You get out from under the property, at a profit, they get a property that they can put sweat equity in, and still get a bargain that they can continue to improve even after.  For a young family with more energy and muscle than money, it's a good deal.