All Forum Posts by: Karen Johnson

Hi Shawn Crawley - please take a look at this recent thread: credit repair services good or not on the BiggerPockets forums http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/550/topics/387609-credit-repair-services-good-or-not My offer to the OP of that thread stands - if you want some tips on how to repair your credit yourself, please feel free to reach out to me directly.

Hi @Lawrence Taylor. This is not strictly the answer to your question, but there are some decent credit repair services and some very questionable ones. The questionable ones can make your credit much worse before they make it better (if ever). You can honestly do everything a credit repair service would do by yourself, and I would advocate for that. If you are looking for some credit repair tips and assistance and aren't uncomfortable sharing some information (no, I don't mean account numbers and your social security number, LOL), feel free to PM me to discuss some changes you could make or steps you could take on your own. I'll let others chime in on the pros and cons question. Just wanted to lend some support and friendly advice.

Best wishes,

Karen.

Thanks, 

@Edward A.

Hi Ryan Rypel . Refusal to rent to people with kids would be discriminatory (unless your property was in a 55+ community). You can deny them if they fail to meet your rental criteria (which should not include "no kids" unless you want to get sued) or if you find a more qualified candidate.

Michael Braatz - heard back from my lender and thought to share. We could get an FHA loan with me as consigner at 3.5% down. This would work fine because I anticipate her moving at some point and me taking over the home.

Thanks, @Michael Braatz. I am going to ask a mortgage professional, but I thought perhaps someone here might have some insight before I do that.

In case it affects the response - we both have excellent credit. I have two mortgages already - one for our (my husband's and my) primary residence and one for our rental property (occupied and cash flow positive).

Hello everyone. I'm considering purchasing a property with my sister. She is moving from out of state to be closer to family and we are considering if it's less expensive for her to purchase a place or to rent one. She doesn't have a lot of money to put down, which is why we thought we could apply for the mortgage together. Would we be required to put down 20%, given that this is not an investment property? I'm not sure how the rules change if only one person on the mortgage occupies the property. Any insight is appreciated.

I used Zillow (this is ultimately where the tenant I accepted came from). Zillow posts to trulia, hotpads and one more place I can't recall at the moment. They also give you the template to post on Craigslist. I'm not sure which site did it, but I got a few phone calls from placement companies offering to list my rental on their site for free. In some cases "free" included asking if you were willing to reduce first month's rent by the amount the applicant paid them to find the unit. I was OK with that if it got my place rented faster. I posted on apartments.com as well. Purely anecdotal but I think the number of section 8 applicants I got increased after posting there (I did get a few before that as well, so it might just be coincidence). If you are accepting section 8 (I wasn't advertising for them, but I was open to screen them if they called me) then you'll want to post on gosection8.com as well (I think this is a national site, but there may be something else for your state or county). Some other options include homes.com, padmapper and move.com. Hope that helps.

@Michael Oldani - Hello. It seems like you've been asking the same question for a couple of months now. I would suggest you start with more education, as it will help a great deal.  I think at least one of these was recommended to your previously:

Brandon's No Money Down Book

J. Scott's Flipping Book

I would suggest you read those if you have not. They speak a lot to the areas you want to know more about - the rehab and the funding.  Also, be sure to listen to the podcasts and educate yourself however you can. This week's webinar would be a good one to attend as well.

To answer your question in a way that hopefully helps you - 

Since you don't have much rehab experience or much money, your best bet is probably to partner with someone. Go to your local REIA and see if you can meet people willing to work with you there. Look for partners on BP. Let people know you're willing to get your hands dirty in exchange for the learning experience (and some of the money, too). You can help by finding a house, and if they have construction and/or contracting experience, they can teach you through the rehab process.

How do you find houses? Some of your options include.:

- Off market deals through associations.

-Yellow letters. For example, there's a house in my neighborhood I know is vacant. I checked the county website and figured out who it belongs to. I'm planning to send them a letter asking if they want to sell. Lather, rinse, repeat.

-MLS

-Investor friendly realtor

-Driving for dollars

How would you get the money? Here are some options:

-Again, partner. Find a deal. Ask an investor to partner with you and they take the larger percentage of the profits in exchange for what you learn from them.

-Owner financing. From my example above, I'm also going to ask if they would like to owner finance, because I know they are older and I think they might like the added monthly income. Your seller may have other reasons why they would be willing to owner finance.

-Conventional financing. I think you previously mentioned you have a little money. Not sure how much properties are going for in your area. You may or may not have enough to get the wheels in motion.

-Hard money lenders

-The old fashioned way - save more money. This one will take a while, but is generally not a bad idea because you're going to need reserves even if you find someone to loan you money. And you're also probably going to need at least a little skin in the game in the form of a downpayment if you use a lender. And there are closing costs and fees to consider.

I think you may have got some of these answers already.You can do this, and I know the folks here want to help. So my question to you is - what more specific questions do you have that the fine folks here at BP can answer to hopefully get you on your way?