All Forum Posts by: Theresa Reynolds

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $125,000

I currently live in this 3 bedroom fixer upper. The plan is to live in it for 2-5 years while completely remodeling it and then selling or renting, depending on the market situation.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $120,000
Cash invested: $40,000
Sale price: $205,000

This 50s split-level home was my first property. I lived in it for 5 years while I turned it into a duplex and fixed it up.

I am trying to buy a property in a market where the average home price is in the 300-400 k range. Occasionally houses come up in the high 200k range. 

I have about 70-80k ready for a downpayment on a place. However, I am a teacher and my income is only about 2k a month gross. As of now,  that is with putting all my money down. I have talked to two banks and one qualified me for a loan for about 200k and the other one for 210k, that is with me putting everything I have down, no room for rehab expenses. Obviously that makes me the opposite of a competitive buyer. Whenever there is something I can afford, the bidding war is so insane that I don't even want to put in an offer because I know the property is never worth that.

Is anyone else in the same boat here? How can I become more competitive. I know banks don't count partners as rental income, even if they pay you rent. And yes, I have inquired about putting him on the loan too, but it would only get me up to about 245k. Plus, I want to own something by myself, without other people involved in the process.

Any ideas?

I have a property under contract that has a shop/garage on it which I want to turn into a house. However, the shop extends about 4ft onto the county road. Supposedly the building is grandfathered in, however, I am curious what other problems this could cause in the future in terms of reselling and marketability. There is no zoning so the remodel part wouldn’t be an issue as I am not adding on. Is it wise to get into something like that?

Looking to buy a mobile home and put it on some land I am buying.

I have my eyes on a 1983 fleet wood doublewide model. It seems in good condition but all the flooring has been torn out and it doesn’t have a furnace currently in it. They’re asking 75k for it which seems very expensive to me for something that’s half torn up.

Any input?

@Justin Hoggatt

The property is listed for 100k.

I’m assuming I need to put in 60-80k.

I have 85k to play with so enough to put down and some for renovations.

The most expensive things are gonna be running the plumbing and then getting septic. If I can get it liveable for now I can move in and do the finish work as I keep saving money.

So the downfall of a construction loan is that I have to get everything finished by a contractor to be able to refinance into a conventional loan. So that would cost a lot more than me doing the finish work and since it will be my primary residence I’d like to finish it up myself (tiling, drywall, paint, etc.)

@Andrew Postell

Basically I’m trying to figure out whether it would be smarter to:

A) pay cash for the property and use a line of credit for the rehab and then refinance or

B) try to get a loan of some sort, put minimal money down and use savings to fix it up.

C) other options?

Basically I want to keep my payments down during the construction period so I thought option A would make sense with interest payments only. Also because I want to do most the finish work myself.

I’m going to call a couple banks today to figure out a loan scenario so I can compare.

Also playing with the thought of putting in a RV hookup and rent the other lot to a tiny house owner for 500$ a month to offset my monthly expenses. The location is very close to town and finding someone to rent the lot would be easy I think.

@Joe Splitrock

Thanks for your input. Since it’s been on the market for a long time and even though everyone wants to buy there, this one seems to have fallen through the cracks. The issue with it is also that it seems to have some water damage in the ceiling and the work they did on it was really just putting lipstick on a pig. They just painted over everything but didn’t really fix anything structurally.

When I looked it up the property itself appraised for about 50k last year and the trailer for like 15k. So I really don’t want to offer more than 95k because the trailer to me doesn’t have any value except I could rent it for a few years.

The location is in a nice neighborhood but not in a fancy neighborhood, I would say upper middleclass. People definitely take care of their homes there.

Have my eye on a 2 lot package in a desirable area.

On lot had a mobile home which has been removed but there is a cement pad still. The other lot has a CMU garage/shop on it.

My plan is to turn the shop into a house.

It would need: a new septic, plumbing, a few windows, eventually a new roof, some layout modifications etc.

Would like to fix it up this year and move on next summer.

Might be able to pay cash for it but need advice on how to best finance the rehab. Was thinking line of credit??

Anything I should be aware of?

@Ryan D.

Thanks Ryan!

It definitely feels like a rollercoaster. It’ll take some getting used to but I hope it one worth it.