All Forum Posts by: William Edmondson

Michael,

Very good points, I guess if the roles were reversed Id feel the same way. Best to just be upfront and real and cut the buzzwords/phrases.

Hey there BP,

I am a beginner real estate investor that has owned and land-lorded a tri-plex in the metro-Atlanta area for the past year pretty successfully and I feel I am ready to take on another property. I have a question about cold-calling investors about potentially selling their property.

Not having much success on the MLS, I have a system in place that I have been using to garner leads for owners of attractive multi-family properties. I'd like to figure out the best strategy for when I call these investors, what to lead with, my elevator pitch, and how to frame the conversation.

Does anyone have any advice for when I call these investors? Obviously nothing will help me if they are just not interested in selling, but those that might be on the fence or looking to sell in the near future I would like to leave a great impression so that they keep me in mind in the future.

Thoughts on talking points:

-I am a real estate investor looking to expand my portfolio and absolutely loved your property on "xxx". I was really impressed with the neighborhood and was wondering if you or anyone else nearby was thinking of selling?

-Bring up the saving of selling direct over the high fees associated with an agent

-Can close quickly

-Thank them graciously for their time and give them my contact information

Any advice would be sincerely appreciated, Thank you!!

Best Regards,

William Edmondson

All,

Thank you for the helpful advice. I'm not sure my current realtor is very investor friendly. She mainly is just giving me information on properties I bring to her. Maybe it's time to shop around. I'll also do some more reading on MLO's. Thanks again!

Hey there BP,

I am a beginning real estate investor who currently owns a Tri-plex in the Atlanta metro area. I've been renting it out successfully for over a year now and been successful in automating and delegating most of the landlording tasks and I think I am ready to take on a second property.

I've been reading the "No Money Down" book by our own Brandon Turner and also several others and was interested in the Master Lease Option and seller financing investment strategies as for a conventional loan, most lenders want 20-25% which would be close to $50k for the properties I'm looking at.

I'm confident in my ability to talk with sellers and getting to understand their wants and needs to make a deal happen, my question is, how do I go about finding and bringing the MLO and SF options on the table to these sellers/owners?

My problems are as follows:

1. I'll find a listing online for a property I like, it might be fully tenant occupied, with a notice to not disturb tenants.

2. It's listed so, if I go with a lease option, the selling agent would get cut out I'm assuming right? So he/she would not be wanting to put me in direct contact with the seller.

3. How do I contact the seller directly? Whats the best way to set up a face to face meeting? How have you set up these deals successfully in the past?

Any and all advice or anecdotes would be appreciated. Plus I'm always looking for mentors/partners/friends in the real estate investing community in Atlanta. Drop me a message if you want to chat or get together sometime to swap ideas. Thanks a lot!

Best Regards,

William Edmondson

REI - Metro Atlanta Area

Keysha and all others interested,

I had an inspector come out today to look at it, and he took samples of the outside for a baseline and also the interior of the unit to check if there is in fact a mold problem, but as far as the moisture goes, the issue he thinks is with the fact that the unit does not receive much sunlight and just the fact of it being a basement unit without vented HVAC causes air to stagnate and moisture to build.

He's told me that for basement units in Georgia it is absolutely standard to have a dehumidifier in the unit and for it to run an hour or two a day. I've decided to buy a more robust digital dehumidifier and have a plumber drill a hole and drain it to the outside so that tenant does not have to manually empty the reservoir every few days.

I'll let you know if anything changes. Thanks!

Best Regards,

Will E.

Travis,

Thanks so much for the advice, I contacted a local mold inspection company and they are going to come out and inspect the unit and take samples this afternoon. If they do not prove satisfactory, I'll happily give your friend Walter a call.

I think part of the issue is that this unit is not served by HVAC, it has a single window A/C unit in the bedroom and baseboard heating units along certain walls, this is a 1960's era house.

She mentioned she hadn't ran the window unit yet this summer, this leads me to believe there is a lot of stagnant air in the apartment which leads to moisture buildup.

I'll keep you and Keysha posted. Thank you again.

Best Regards,

Will E.

Hello all,

I have a problem that I hope someone may have experience with. I am a new REI and I purchased my first property, a triplex in DeKalb County, GA in which I owner-occupy. It has two units on the front which appear as a duplex, and on the back of the property (property is on a downward slop, there is a 1br/1ba unit that was built from the finished basement which sits below the other two units. The entrance to this unit faces out from the rear of the house.

There is an issue with excess moisture in this unit in particular. I have a dehumidifier down there running and its sucking maybe a gallon a day or more out of the unit. There is nothing growing on the walls or anything, but if you go in there and sit on the couch or the bed it feels cold and damp like it was in a refrigerator or something.

I don't believe there are any leaks or anything, I pay for the water bill and the bill is very reasonable, ~100 bucks a month for all three units.

There is a crawlspace on the other side of the wall of her unit where the water heaters for the units reside and there are various things stored like yard tools, is it possible that rain water is getting into there somehow and leaking under the floor, humidifying the room?

She moved a pair of shoes that had sit in her closet for a month and it had what appeared to be a blue hue to it like bread mold or something.

I want to get this handled as quickly as possible but I've seen so many horror stories about "mold experts" that employ pseudoscience to diagnose mold issues and I don't want to get raked over the coals here.

Again, any advice is extremely helpful. Thank you so much!

Best Regards,

-Will E.

Hey man,

Having just purchased a triplex with an FHA loan this past December, let me let you know whats up.

To purchase with an FHA loan, you'll need the 3.5% down payment plus possibly closing costs if your seller wont pay for them, which run around $3500.

If it's above a duplex, (triplex and quad) you need to show you have reserves on hand for the loan to be funded, I think you need 6 months worth of mortgage payments in the bank. You dont have to spend this money, you just have to have it and prove you have it. Duplex's do not have this requirement.

Also, you cannot get an FHA loan for larger than the FHA Appraised value of the home, so keep that in mind, if you offer 160k on the property and it gets accepted but the FHA comes back and says its only worth 150k, you can only get a loan for the 150k and if the seller won't come down to that price then you will have to either come up with the difference in cash or walk away. You will get your deposit back though since there is usually a financing exemption clause in your offer.

Wish you the best,

Will Edmondson

Thank you,

I'm looking into Multi-Families and it seems like it's impossible to get a 5% "Conventional" loan if it's an investment property, so FHA seems to be the way to go at the moment. I'll get the ball rolling on this asap.

Hey there,

Here is my situation. I got a really good deal on my first property, a tri-plex in Atlanta, GA. The property was zoned as a single family and therefore the appraiser was forced to appraise the property much lower than my offer, but the seller accepted the lower number. Anyway, I bought it with an FHA loan and paid the 3.5% down. I have good reason to believe that if I rezone the property properly to multi-family and refinance the property, I will be able to instantly have close to 20% equity.

Is it possible to refinance the property to a conventional loan and then immediately run out and purchase another property with an FHA loan? Saving the 20-25% feels extremely slow for me. I am looking to primarily buy tri-plex and four-plex's to hold. Thanks so much in advance.