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It’s easy to get started investing in real estate, but there are few basics you will need to get going on the right foot.
For further guidance read my latest ezine article entitled “The Door of Opportunity For REI is Always Open, But Bring Along Good Credit and a Desire to Learn”.
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I will be out of town the next couple of weeks. Please tune in again in August.
Keep your eyes open for that next great fixer-upper property!
Remember, you don’t need to know everything to get started. You can learn as you go.
Terry
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I have a new fixer upper house article over at ezinearticles.com that shows you how to get the seller to help pay your closing costs when purchasing a house.
Townhouse Purchase Update
The mortgage company has given the green light and we are now waiting for the title company to get the paper work together. We will probably close tomorrow or Friday.
I’m anxious to get started fixing the property. My boys are out of school for the summer and they are chomping at the bit to make a little extra spending money by helping out with the repair work.
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Buying fixer upper houses and converting them into rental houses is a great business. And anyone can do it. You don’t need a certificate, you don’t need a degree, and you don’t need anyone’s permission. You just do it!
To view a condensed version of how I got started in the fixer-upper business, check out my article at ezinearticles.com. This is the version with no bells or whistles, and no accompanying three-part harmony.
The townhouse closing may or may not happen today. If not, Angy has to catch a flight out of town tomorrow. In that case, we will have to sign power of attorney over to me so that I can sign for both of us at closing.
Just like the recipe for my famous extra-chewy chocolate chip cookies, the plot thickens!
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We were not able to close on the fixer-upper townhouse on Friday. The underwriter for the loan requested some more documentation. They asked for a monthly utility bill to verify our current residence, a copy of my wife’s driver license to verify her complete legal name, and copies of our social security cards.
If all goes well, we will now close on Monday or Tuesday.
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My review of the book One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life, by Marci Alboher is now on-line over at ezinearticles.com. I think it’s a great book for those of us who are part-time fixer upper house investors with several balls in the air at the same time. One aspect of the book that I particularly enjoyed is that it describes many case studies of people who have chosen this path and tells “why’ and “how” they did it. My review of the book is from the perspective of someone who keeps their day job and does real estate on the side.
I also recommend visiting Marci’s New York Times blog entitled Shifting Careers: Smart Thinking at Work. It regularly provides thoughtful stories of interesting people who approach work to the beat of a different drummer.
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The purchase process is winding its way toward a conclusion for the fixer-upper townhouse that I am purchasing. I had the inspection done last Wednesday (naturally, I followed the inspector around so I could see the problems that he saw), the appraisal should have come in today, and we are closing Friday.
The good faith estimate from the mortgage company came in at around $650/month PITI. I plan to charge $775 for the base rent on the new townhouse. We put 20% down on the $105,000 sales price, and the seller cooperated by paying for part of the closing costs out of her proceeds at closing. (I’m going to discuss that in more detail in a future post.)
It’s a property that’s really worth a hoot because it has all the right things wrong with it. It needs paint, needs vinyl tiles replaced, needs wood putty in door holes, a few outlets are cracked, has some oil on the driveway, and it has a few leaky faucets. On the plus side, the A/C is only one year old and the roof is solid. And all the appliances work. It should take about week to get it in ship shape.
The best part about the deal is that my other unit, 3 doors down, rents like hotcakes. As soon as we put the For Rent sign up, we have people knocking on the door. I’ve been waiting for another one these units to open up at a decent price.
On another note,
There’s a good aritcle comparing oil vs. latex paints over at fliprent.com.
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I offered $100,000 on the $115,000-listed fixer upper townhouse. The owner came back with $110,00. I came back with $105,000, and the owner accepted my offer. More details to come.
It seems that more houses are now being priced to sell. The agent selling the house that I am purchasing told me that she priced the house 10% below what other, similar houses were selling for. Even after that deduction, the owner took 10% less than the lower price. I think there are a lot of motivated sellers out there right now.
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Fixer Jay
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One of my favorite real estate investing authors, and someone who has inspired me in my own fixer upper house business, is Fixer Jay DeCima. He has a very informative webpage at www.fixerjay.com. I regularly check out his blog posts located on the website.
As I have mentioned before, I think Jay’s books are exceptionally good guides to learn about the fixer-upper business.
Here is a review I wrote about Jay’s latest book:
Start small, profit big in real estate
The Quickest Way to Lose Money
What is the quickest way to lose money in real estate?
Find out in my latest ezinearticles.com article.
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House Shopping
I am making an offer on a fixer-upper townhouse. It’s a 2 bed 2 bath unit in a row of about 10 townhouses, where I already own another townhouse. It’s not the proverbial “worst house in the best neighborhood” but it’s located in a mixed lower-middle to middle-class neighborhood where there is good demand for housing.
They are asking $115,000 and I am offering $100,000. I’ll let you know how it comes out.
One Person/Multiple Careers
I began reading Marci Alboher’s intriguingly entitled book One Person/Multiple Careers. It’s interesting to read about other people doing similar multiple careers to what we part-time real estate investors are doing. I’ll post a review of the book here soon.
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