All Forum Posts by: Zach Ward

After talking to my insurance provider they will still cover my house but not "endorse" the animal. However, once I explained to them in detail the situation and my legal liability they did say that if I could get the renter to provide things such as documentation of who trained it along with "service animal" papers, vaccination records, and so forth that they would cover the animal. Thankfully the guy never showed but reading the federal guidelines one would think you aren't allowed to ask for such papers. Hopefully the fact that my insurance company requires it would fall under the "reasonable accommodation" part. I did read one case where they required one tenant to carry 1 million in coverage for the pet. Thank you federal government for making things so convenient :/

so yes or no.  If my insurance will drop me due to a certain breed then wouldn’t that be considered an unreasonable request? 

yes. You can be. Your insurance company will provide you with a list of animals they won’t cover. I was an ER nurse for years and I don’t care how many sweet stories you hear about pits. Multiple women mauled to death by their own pits this year plus one accross the street from my rental house was killed while cleaning a cage at a boarding house a few days ago. Small breed sent me the most bites at work but pits sent me the most vicious which means the most costly. The overwhelming majority of pit bites I had was owner breaking up their dogs fighting over food or dog biting a guest at house. All dogs can bite but last  I checked a dachshunds (weeny dog) won’t cause 200,000 in surgical repair. 

@John G. those numbers would go great in my area. Just consider what type of tenants your looking for, school zones, amenities, crime. No education is free. We all spend some money to learn...and sorry for any typos on the I phone watching ET with the kids.

@john 

@John G. oh and I walked in damn near every credit union and small town bank in my area and asked them what here can do for me. Some won't volunteer a whole lot of info some will jump through hoops. I found one a ton of full time investors use and is eager for business and doesn't mind volunteering info. Some people like to teach thank god. Find a local real estate investor club to join.  Example my area we have NELA landlords and we meetup once a month for lunch at a catfish house, eat, guest speaker, and pick each other's brains over. 

(Your reply) ok, so basically owner financing. Gotcha. As far as deals its hard to say without looking at and knowing your area. Those big ticket items could be creeping up on you like roof, might have old clay sewage pipes, AC (I'm In Louisiana so AC has about a 10-15 yr life) but then again depreciation is also a tax incentive which means she prob had houses for 30 years now and I'm sure aside from cash flow she's made they have appreciate since she bought Them. Find you a recommended home inspector and pay him extra to look over houses. Here it's about 275 a home.

@John G. not sure what you mean by "contract" most of my deals have been pretty standard. SFH in a succession or occupied. Assuming the 4-5 homes are under one loan maybe. Contractual agreement to cover capital improvements and rehab cost? OPM is justs what it means. Instead of using money I earned at my day job I'm using other renters money to make DP on a new house or the Equity paydown from rents on one house to cover a down payment on a new rental property. Or heck banks money is still somebody else's money.

Example.

Last year I found a house in need of major rehab in a C minus area I bought for $35,000 the ARV was $70,000

Small community bank was eager to spread roots in our area so was generous with lending and gave me a construction loan to acquire property and gave me 15k to rehab. So basically gave me $50,000 loan. Upon completion of rehab I was only  $46,000.00 in and had house renting for $750. We "termed" out construction loan (since typically construction loans are short term for let's say 6 months) and did a typical 20 year amortization. Few months later I see a small 900sq ft.  brick in a solid B hood in best school zone in town. I honestly had to pay close to market value but will prob fetch $200 a month cash flow and these neighborhoods have appreciated since they were built in 70s. 

I "bird dogged" an awesome deal with house A and used banks money to buy and rehab with nothing out of my pocket and making $300 a month profit. Used As equity to buy house B with no money out of my pocket and will potentially fetch $200 ( close on it in 2 days ;) and house Bs area is appreciating every year. Didn't use any of my money. OPM...other people's money. There's tons of other examples on here and more than one way to do it.

@Thomas S. keep in mind everybody has a different risk tolerance and every market is different. Some people can't sleep at night owning nothing and owing the bank everything. Others however are comfortable leveraging like crazy. Life happens just like stocks go up and down. All my homes are leveraged with exception to my primary which is owned. One day I will have a few paid off completely with conservative leverage on the others. I could HELOC my home then get hit by a bird square in the face and Be blinded for life then fall and break my arms resulting in inability to work...then lets say the two big employers around my town go under and bam I need four new roofs three ACs and renters are sparse cuz of lay offs....$hit happens. Remeber 2008...but to each there own. I'm no noob but am no expert either but 10 years from now I still won't give that advice so readily to an up and comer.

As of today I'm closing on 7th property in two days and 8th property in three weeks. 7th property is another equity grab in a B neighborhood that's costing me nothing out of pocket except a few thousand for flooring and some painting (due to finding and awesome deal on 6th property in a C- hood). 8th will require a DP but it's a solid B neighborhood that has appreciated since birth so I'm looking to hold awhile. (I normally don't buy for speculation of appreciation but making exception on this one since all my others cash flow well) Me and my wife considered doing a HELOC but our house is completely paid off and we have kids so I'd rather not even take a change and just use that as a back up of a back up plan. Everybody has a different risk tolerance. I would definitely pay that HELOC off first, just my opinion, especially if you have a family. If I was single with no kids then Id probably take more risk. So for most part I use OPM and money I put back in savings also earned from OPM (other peoples money)

Its good to be the "bank"

@Damir Kamber I'm definatley no pro yet but after half a dozen "learning"houses I like to keep my concepts simple. Can't tell you how may people I've come across that know way more than me and only invenstment they have is their 401k

@Dan Gengler the fact that you've jumped in means you are already ahead of many. So many people want to become expert mathematicians, logistic experts, real estate gurus, physicist...you get the idea...before they jump in. Learn the basics. Get some blood and sweat on you. Learn more as you invest more. (I do read everything I can and talk to whomever I can, but I don't let fear of ignorance hold me back. If my numbers make since then I try  to find reasons not to pull trigger. If I can't I buy)

And yes I revived the thread while bored at my day job :)

1) My experience I've had better luck with small home town banks and credit unions who know and use same appraisers. Also, regardless of any upgrades, my credit union lender disclosed to me they have to use the "market value" or purchase price of house for first 12 months so was pointless to redo another appraisal for first year.

2) After first year we ordered three appraisals for a blanket loan covering three houses. I asked to meet with appraiser and walk around to "get an idea of what process is like" to learn more. That's how I pitched it anyways. Simply small talked and was nice but not a kiss @$$. With basic repairs and some needed cap improvements my appraisals improved. A. purchase price 82k/appraisal price 107k, B. purchase price 25k/appraisal price 37k, C purchase price 46/appraisal price 46K (new property I was buying)

First of these properties came with a 20% DP at time of purchase before I blanket loaned all three into one loan. Property C being the new purchase. I was able to acquire the third house with just Equity from first two houses.  Since then have bought two more using strong equity position.

3) Point is you have to buy at a discount from get go to improve later value quicker...depends also on appraiser. three appraisers may give three different prices but sure as hell don't hurt to show up and put a face to that paper they will be signing later.

4) DONT OVER REHAB...repair what has to be repaired to make livable and make it presentable. We all are guilty of doing too much sometimes. If you are buying and holding I like to make presentable and functional. I'm not living there just collecting rent checks.

5) I will literally knock on doors and call "for rent" signs or talk to neighbors standing outside to get an idea of what I can actually get for rent. I always use conservative numbers when doing my math. Any extra I make is just a bonus to me.

6)  No education is free ;)