All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

 In my state, yes the owner can be on the hook and it will not go well if your insurance is not a landlord insurance since that can be viewed as insurance fraud. 

Normally you wouldn't be liable, but did you screen your tenant and have records? Did you have tenants sign something that states the dog is non-aggressive? Did you have proper insurance coverage and if so, some policy covers dangerous dog breeds?

If the answers to all those questions were a no, then the neighbor can come after you and the tenant.Hopefully the dog is not considered a dangerous breed or that will be another thing the neighbor can bring up since a landlord is suppose to ensure the tenants will not be a threat to the neighbors.

You have to be an owner occupant for VA loan. Of course majority of lenders that provide VA loans does not have a time-frame on how long you have to occupy the home. I have a VA loan deal I am working on, but it is going to be my primary home and will be pulling out the equity to fund other properties. On my contract, it only states that at the time of closing, I have the intention to occupy the home.

VA loan is awesome tool if you run your numbers right. You basically have to find a house atleast 15% undervalue with high rental income to make good cash flow with a VA loan. Most of those are going to be homes that you have to rehab. Luckily there the VA just released a guideline for a new loan called the VA RENO 30 yrs fixed: https://www.benefits.va.gov/HOMELOANS/documents/ci...

However, there is only one lender that I have talked to out of hundreds that does this loan, and they don't even advertise that they do it since it is so new and are not willing to do it. You have to find the regional loan officer for your area and have him sign off on it. If you just call their regular phone number, the guy on the other line won't know what you are talking about because they follow a script and only offer products that are advertised. I will actually be the first one for them to do a major rehab (more than $110k renovation project). There used to be another lender that did it under the old guideline which stated you can only do cosmetic renovation under $20k, but that lender got bought out by the lender I am going thru. 

I personally would use the saving to get the next property. If your interest rate on that HELOC gives you positive cash flow on top of the other expenses you have on the property, there is no need to pay it off.

The 23% is basing it off of the refinance. So $750 (monthly income) * 12 months = $9,000/($4,598.07 + $2,500) = 0.77 (rounded) - 1= 0.23 or 23%

@Sandhya Gorman I always shop around. For mortgages or vehicle loans (have bought, sold, traded over 10 vehicles in the past 8 years). I actually pit my lenders against each other. Most of the time they waive lenders fee, or drop interest rate a bit. Most of the time though, the big banks will not play ball since the person you are talking to are following scripts, but credit unions or local mortgage lenders don't mind going to a bidding war. Normally I ask 2-3 lenders and will have that same amount of pre-approval letter. If you got pre-approved, it doesn't really matter where you go purchase your home as long as its within a certain range on taxes. All the bank cares about is the overall monthly payment (debt to income ratio). 

@Bret Rubash Never give out your social without knowing what it will use for. I have credit score monitoring  and actually had my identity stolen 3 times. 100+ points dropped is way too much unless you opened up an account while inquiring. There is something else going on like others have said. Also, depending on what you are trying to get, there are different credit scores for em. For instance, my credit score for obtaining mortgages are 760, but my "regular" credit score that is commonly used for credit cards etc is only 730. The difference due to the different formula that are being used. For mortgages, the formula focuses more on installment loans and payment history, for credit cards its the revolving debt. 

The reason why credit ratings are dropped for an inquiry is due to the fact that means someone keeps seeking credit for different things which as an investor should be a flag. If I knew you were searching for credit all the time, I wouldn't want to invest in you. As such the credit score would standardize that and give you a score to help lenders, banks, etc (investors) to make quick determination whether to lend you money or not. After 6 months, that inquiry normally stops affecting your score as long as you don't keep searching for new ones. For mortgages or auto loans, you have 2-4 weeks of getting your score pulled as much as you want and it will only count as one.  

Disclaimer: still new to this, but in the same boat as you with trying to determine rehab cost (not flipping though).

I would contact a general contractor and see if they can give you a rough estimate for free. $85-90/sq ft homes are about what my area is going for but older homes with larger lots. Just taking a quick glance at Zillow in your area, I think to come out on top, I would ask for $85k max. Reason: that apartment in the back means that you are letting go part of the lot (hopefully not much). So the lot size will be a lot smaller than it already is. I personally wouldn't do this deal due to just looking at Zillow, the ones going above $150k are over 0.5 acres and 2300+ sqft (even though it has not been renovated). 

Just to give you an idea; in my area, it would cost me roughly $6,500- $8,000 to drywall 2000 sq ft house if I hired someone. Not sure how much you are looking into getting for the flip, but I don't wouldn't want to put in that much work for only a bit of cash.

Of course I do not know what the actual comps are in the area since I am not in your market nor actually have a Realtor's CMA analysis in hand. So my numbers are pretty much guessing your market and those price points may be worthless.

I am still new to real estate and trying to figure out how to tell when a neighborhood is turning around. There is a certain zip code that has been known to be the "hood" in my city. It is not the ghetto, but close to it. Well recently the area has been seeing a lot of investors coming in and renovating the boarded up houses then turning around and selling it. Also, the city just got awarded HUD $24.5 mil grant for the adjacent zip code right which is just right across the freeway.

The area is still really cheap and still have a lot of boarded up housing and many still associate the area as bad. The crime rate is still high, but its getting concentrated to the center of the zip code. This area is about 5 miles from downtown. So I think this area will turn around based on the information I researched. Is there something else I should be looking for? 

I want to buy, rent, and hold onto properties, would this be a good time to jump in even though the area is still cheap and labeled bad? 

So, I got really interested in a foreclosed home that has been on the market for over a year (since Mar 2017 to be exact). It is a local bank owned property, but its been a year and the listing price only dropped $500. Listing price is going for $79k and requires A LOT of work. I don't think its more than $60k at best; so my realtor called the listing agent to get some info and show interest in it and we were planning to offer $50k. The listing agent then went on and said they are garnering buyer interests and one other offer is coming in tomorrow. Is this just the listing agent blowing smoke that I have heard about? 

My market is still a buyer's market that houses sit on avg of 80 days on the market and customary for seller to pay for closing; even banks. 

Literally a foreclosed nightmare: busted holes in the wall (even a section of a wall is missing), previous occupant took all the light fixtures and even a bathroom sink. Left all their trash in the house and looks like they systematically spread it all over the floor as I have to tip toe to look around. The wires looks like they have been stolen and cut, the furnace and A/C are damaged with some of their internals taken. The foundation and frame is amazing and this sits on top of a large lot (1.25 acre). I would like this a a primary residence for at least a couple of years since I like the location. We are drafting the offer with the $60k purchase price as I think that is the best and highest I will be wanting to get it for. 

What do ya'll think? Listing agent may just be trying to increase offer price?

 Ya I understand. I thought since I had no down payment, with seller paying for closing cost and no lenders fee (basically free renovated house), I would get away with very low cash flow. I'll just go forward and buy the house, renovate and use it as my primary residence. Use the equity to get a duplex or single family home in a lower class neighborhood (the house in question is in a class A neighborhood). 

 I am no longer renting it out, but will use it as my primary residence for at least 3 years (have orders to stay in this city). My realtor is not a property manager. Her co-worker is the one that looked at the home. All the real estate companies here have a property management division for rentals. The renovation I have been stating is inflated. The estimate I got from the general contractors is 50-60k (had 3 estimates from different ones), but like I have stated; I want a buffer of 20k so I am using the 70-80k range. The canned percentage for future repairs was what I got from the property manager. Don't know how else to estimate future repairs.

We just had it appraised with the VA appraisal while the General Contractor was around today. It appraised for $240k ARV (this is an A class neighborhood by the way). So while I am not going to be renting it out, my plan is to pull the equity out with a heloc to use as a down payment on a duplex in the Class C neighborhood. Still trying to look for a good deal in the lower crime area, but Class C neighborhood seems to have the best cash-flow for my market.