All Forum Posts by: Troy Young

Payman, Sounds good. If I expand I'm more interested in other countries than states right now but never know. Thanks for the offer. 

Steve: I was told 10 was the limit for me. So if I held 10 or less personally and the rest in an LLC (or multiple LLC's) it (having an umbrella policy) could work.

Start with an umbrella but as you pick up more houses you may want to form LLC's. I have been told by different agents that I have too many rentals in my personal name to get an umbrella policy. I started a couple LLC's and can at least take a step in better protection. Also, a higher liability coverage (like 1 million) could be a good way to go on each of the houses if you can't get an umbrella policy or just want the added protection.

PS. one of the houses I bought for $8,500 spent less than $1,000 to fix it up and had it rented it out in less than a month after buying it. The tenant stayed for about 4 years and during that time he paid for the house and all my expenses from the house plus about $3,000 extra. $3k and a free house in 4 years and less than $10k investment isn't bad. When the tenant moved out I sold it the day the tenant moved for $25k (rent with the option to buy) with $5k down.   

I invest in St. Clair County, MI under an hour north of Detroit. Most of the houses I buy are in Port Huron. I've bought a few under 10k that didn't require much to get livable. I usually spend around 20-30k but using very little or non of my own money. I like the cheap houses without having to worry about getting shot (as I've heard happen to different landlords in Detroit). If interested I would help you out or look to even partner with you. I currently have 29 of my own properties and manage properties for a few others so I know the market and have a good team around me that may be able to get you going in your price range. 

I expect you to be able to make money on this deal but I think you can find a better ROI. If you have been looking and this is the best fit for you then do it. Even if you make $200 a month on this it's going to take a very long time for the tenant to buy it for you. I've had different tenants buy the house for me after 3-4 years (repairs, taxes, ins. etc. included). To me it's a lot of money tied up for a long time. But If you make good money and values go up you can save up or refinance to keep buying. I just don't want you to put everything into this one and not be able to move on the next one for a long time.

One big step is getting them to drop the price $65k. Even if they accept that offer I don't like those numbers unless you think it will appreciate in value more than most for some reason. If you will be living there and enjoy it that's different than looking at it for an investment. To me as an investment the numbers probably aren't good enough.

That's a great problem to have. I choose the best one. If you made any claim to accept the first full offer than I would do that but otherwise if you take the best offer it shouldn't be a problem. Usually when I have that situation (which is often) I let them know as they are looking and different times they will either put more money up front (like pay 6 months in advance) or offer an extra $50 a month or so.  

I've been able to buy with cash, get financing later (sometimes waiting 6 months is beneficial), and then use that cash to buy the next one(s). Different banks have different rules. When I started banks didn't want to give me anything but one would after 6 months and they just went off the SEV. Later I found another bank that wanted to see my tax returns (very common) but I convinced them not to look at them (a benifit a smaller bank may give you that larger ones won't). Banks do look at many things your income (from tax returns) is just one of many so if you get turned down by one try another. Try some larger banks and smaller ones also because they can do things differently. Overall the more you make and have the easier it is to find money though so you may have to work hard at first but it will get easier. 

I haven't used that. I use both larger banks and local banks which give tenants many options for payments such as: email, text, in person, over the phone, online transfer etc. It's possible for the tenants to set up automatic payments with some of those options also. If cozy.co looks good and is free I like making it convenient for me to get paid but there are many good options through banks if you don't like that one or if they try to charge fees.