All Forum Posts by: Thomas Williamson

I've spoken with another contact at FOA who is very good.  If you'd like the contact info pm me.  

I'm looking into different lenders, several of which I've found on BP.  Has anyone used US Commercial?  If so what was your experience like?  I've looked at their webpage and all I can say is it's interesting.

I can't tell if it's for people who can't get loans anywhere else or if it's just a husband and wife team making private loans.  Any input would be appreciated.  I'm also looking at Finance of America.  

Thanks

Anyone else have a good contact at Finance of America?

@Holly Schuler sorry I have my hands full with mine.  Closing on one next week.  You might want to check with Myers Team Realty in Loganville (I have no connection to them) but I know they sell a ton of homes in that area, and I think they may offer management services.  If not, they may be able to point you toward some contractors.  Good luck

Welcome to Walton County.  I live in and invest here.  I do most of my own work, and manage my own properties.  Sorry wish I could be of more assistance.  What part of Walton?

@Michaela G.  I read your original post when it first came up and see it got side tracked at some point.  Just wanted to say thank you for posting.  That took guts, and I enjoyed reading the story when you posted it.  Good lessons there for many of us.  

I'm always amazed by these stories from the standpoint of how could an owner not know someone was moving into their house.  If I have a vacant house that I'm advertising, I check on the house at least every other day.  The scammers would have to break into the house (burglary) change at least one set of the locks, then start showing the property to whoever showed up with cash.  Then the victims would have to move in, which most likely would take a couple of days.  If an owner isn't checking on their property at least every other day, they're opening the door so to speak for something like this to happen.  Then it's a mess to try and clean up.  I know a lot of owners prefer using management companies (and I totally get that) but this is also what could happen when someone doesn't care as much about your asset as you should.  

I've looked into this for one of my properties as well.  What I found was it all depends on the home.  Is it a manufactured home, or a modular home?  The one I have is a double wide built in early 80's.  I assumed it was just a manufactured home.  Like yours it's permanently fixed to my property (brick foundation skirting).  When I started researching loans, I found that it all depends on what the I.D. plates on the home indicate.  Mine were located on the electric panel box.  My home actually turned out to be a modular home.  I contacted the company that certified the plates (engineering company in Florida) and they said based on the information listed on the plates, the home was built to local building codes, therefore it was considered a modular and not a manufactured home.  

That is great news for me, because it's basically a double wide trailer, but because it was built to local building codes, it's considered a modular home for loan and insurance purposes.  That being said, most lenders (even big ones) will lend on a modular home.  That's a 30 year fixed rate mortgage, but they won't lend on a manufactured home.  To me they're basically the same as long as you're not talking about an actual modular build stick house.    

Now if your home isn't considered a modular, most banks won't touch it.  My local community bank said they would put a mortgage on it if it weren't a modular, but that's only because we do a lot of business with them.  One thing you may want to look at is searching mobile home lenders if you haven't already done that.  I did find a good handful that would possibly provide loans since that's all they do.

On a side note, I did the same thing as you.  Completely gutted the home all the way down to the studs.  I even took the ceiling out.  I sheet rocked the entire home and made it completely modern.  every single thing in the home was replaced.  I had two appraisers that said they didn't know how to appraise it since there were no good comps for them to use.  I got the feeling they just weren't familiar with modular homes or manufactured homes.  They wanted to compare it to every other modular / manufactured home around which would have drastically dropped the value on all the hard work I put into the home.  

I decided to hold off on a mortgage for now.  We made it our personal home after downsizing from a 5000 sq. ft. home.  We now live rent and mortgage free with no debt (other than our loans on investment properties).  Good luck.

A little over two years ago my wife and I downsized from a 5,000 sq. ft. custom home into a 1400 sq. ft. home.  We first went from the 5,000 sq. ft. home to one of our rentals I had just renovated.  We lived there for a year while I renovated an even smaller home (the 1400 sq. ft. home), and eventually moved there once I finished with it. 

The end result is we got rid of our 2400.00 a month mortgage, and now live mortgage and rent free.  The only debt we have is eight mortgages on our investment properties. I work full time, so the goal was to get to a point where the rentals pay our monthly expenses, and I can bank my income for more properties.  Not exactly a tiny house, but it sounds like what your're trying to accomplish.

BTW, the purchase price for the 1400 sq. ft. was 55,000 on an acre of land.  I put another 30,000 in it to completely modernize it.  Good luck.  

I have SFHs in Georgia, and I would NEVER have any utilities in my name, unless the house was vacant.  In Ga, if the tenant doesn't pay any of the utilities, that unpaid balance stays with them, not the property.  It goes against their credit report.  The only situation I could imagine paying any utility on behalf of the tenant would be in a MF apartment complex.