Realtor/Investor Journal

Today I met with my mortgage broker about my new home. It’s a 3b/2b fixer upper; I am purchasing it using a FHA 203k loan. It’s a little cumbersome loan program but I’m in it for $100 down and I get to finance my repair costs. I got it for 47% of the (Recently) appraised value. It’s a great deal for me because I get to use my first time homebuyer credit of $8,000 on my 08 taxes as well as receive my commission. I look at it as a long term flip- 3 years for the homebuyer credit. I’m going to live with a few friends so they can cover my mortgage, and all of my other commissions and income can go right into investments.

I also had a cold call showing that wont work out but maybe I found a buyer for another home.

Congratulations on your new home BJ... I hope all goes well with it. Sounds to me like you know what you are doing. I am new to investing. Just began taking courses and I am really excited! I am hoping to have my first Real Estate transaction in progress within a month. So I have 28 days left to learn about assignment of contracts (that's what I want to do for now) and begin a deal. Since you are a Realtor....any advice for me?

Sincerely,
Carol
(Carol and Gar's Journal)

Thursday
Today I set up a couple of open houses for the weekend and spent most of the morning advertising properties and corresponding with buyers. Side note: our foreclosure inventory is way down off about 40% but we have been holding pretty steady with our incoming properties. Just an observation but in the suburbs we have almost all townhomes now, the SF homes are getting picked up fast.

I spent the afternoon checking out investment properties. There are three that show real promise.

The first is a 3B/1B older rambler w/ about 1500 sq ft that is on a busy street. It needs a lot of work and has some minor water/mold damage. I think it’s a good flip possibility with about a 30k profit margin.

The second is a Newer TH w/ 2B/1.5B and 1100 Sq Ft that is in move in ready condition (only needs a washer/dryer) I can get it for 40%-45% of the appraised value. It should yield a positive cash flow of 300-400 a month.

The third is the most interesting, it was built in the 90's and is a beautiful home in a good neighborhood that hasn’t had many foreclosures, it has 4 bedrooms upstairs but here is the problem the carpets are soiled and the bedrooms are all really small like 10 by 10 with only 1 bath. Houses in the area and from that timeframe do not have bedrooms that small. The basement is only semi-finished just an 1100 sq ft open room that has been sheet rocked with the rough ins for a half bath in the corner. I figure tear a wall down between two bedrooms make a master suite and replace the lost bedroom with a bedroom in the basement and put in the bath. The rest of the house needs lipstick but everything big like windows siding roof are all in good condition. This house could be a big money maker like 60k for equivalent work and budget to the first deal mentioned above.

Wow this got long sorry...

So I haven’t posted on here for a while I have been crazy busy here. I thought I would update everyone on what I’ve been doing. So I finished my long term flip and collected our $8,000 stimulus tax credit. I managed to get my home for 0 down and get an extra 25k for rehab. That took more than a little outside of the box thinking. I have about $75k in equity, which I am itching to pull some out to do more deals with. My fiancé and I got married and moved in along with a couple of our friends who are paying our mortgage for us. This frees up essentially all of my real estate commissions to work deals with.
I bought two rental properties this year that have a combined cash flow of $825 a month. I also have a positive equity situation of about 60k. We also have really good tenants in both that make my job easy. We could have gotten more in cash flow but these tenants are worth it. I partnered with my sister and her husband; they are providing some of the money and the financing. I am managing and splitting costs with them. All in all 2009 was the craziest and best year yet.

In the next few weeks I will be closing on a home in a really nice suburb of the Twin Cities MN. This deal will be my first flip so its exciting and more risky than my previous endeavors. I looked at financing the deal with a hard money lender but everyone I could find was really pricy so I am using conventional financing. If anyone has a recommendation for a good hard money lender let me know.

hello bj my name is
brain and im from cleveland ohio
just would like to introduce myslef

where are you from?

born and raised in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota