All Forum Posts by: Vilfreda Hoagland

Greeting fellow investors, 

I am doing my first rehab with hard money.  In the past I got houses that were move in ready so I did inspections as natural course.  I'm under contract and seller is refusing to turn on the utilities.  I am planning on doing floors, bathrooms, new AC, and other things so most of the house is getting fixed up. I want to do the inspection because I am afraid there is something in the electrical, plumbing or roof that may cost me way more than my budget.  

How do you handle this situation? Am I being too stringent?  There was a tenant that was evicted so there were people living in the house a few months ago.  Is it even worth it to do an inspection without utilities on? Thanks for your help.

Hello BP, 

I have a rental under contract in Columbia SC.  I am out of state and need help getting a local contractor to install an HVAC and maybe new windows depending on what the inspection turns up.  

Also, if you have suggestions for local property management that also handle improvements and have reasonable rates, please let me know....I need all the help I  can get!

@ BJ Marshall, Your post kind of scared me, because I'm doing that right now.  I just got under contract for my first rental/ first investment ever.  I did it because I'm in a good place right now.  I have a stable job that pays me enough to cover my costs and have some money left over.  I have enough for a down payment and closing costs. But, I haven't actually been paying attention to rental stuff and all the things you mentioned, I've been reading investment books, and analyzing properties. I'm working on one step at a time, and now that I'm under contract I started coming to these forums to prepare for listing and renting the property.  

Your post made me realize that there are issues I haven't considered.  Your post made me kind of reconsider what I am doing.  But, my thought is that there is always something going on that makes it a bad time if I'm looking for a reason.  I can try to "convince" you by talking about low interest rates, but no one can convince you, this is your life, your choice.  You have all the risk and all the rewards.  Whatever you decide, best of luck to you.

@Joseph Moore Jr.  Thank you for the information. I've been looking at out of town houses, but I'm not comfortable enough yet, I would need to manage the property myself.  

@lucia Rushton. I'm looking at $100k or less because I have enough saved for 20% down.  There are some lower priced houses but most require some extensive work. I'm trying to find something ready to go.

I'm ready to buy a rental property, but I keep flip flopping on where to focus.  I live in Fort Worth and I'm looking close by so I can manage it.  The issue is what's available near me is higher priced.  I want something that is ready to go and will only require minor stuff.  Getting a more expensive place would use up almost all my savings for the down and closing. However, there are properties an hour or two away that are cheaper so I wouldn't use up all my savings and still produce cash flow. But, I think they would be harder to rent and rents would be much lower than what I can get for the properties in FW. The house I choose with affect the loan I can get so I need to decide.  

For those of you who have experience in smaller towns or lower rents do you recommend staying closer to the city where houses will appreciate faster and rents will be higher but will use up all my savings or go outside the city where houses will be cheaper and I can keep some of my savings but rents will be lower and maybe houses will not appreciate as fast?