Recent Praise
Thursday, November 20th, 2008My Take on The Bailout
Russ H
"Amen brother…Josh for President! We are definitely like-minded people."
Stephen W.
"Great article. Nice mix of rant, philosophy, free markets, and….marketing!
Your writing skills impress me quite a bit, actually. Writing skills are the output from thinking skills. I think you should get a radio show or regular newspaper column."
Alex D.
"Good Points! Remember the movie zeitgeist? Increasing the power of the fed (tighter regulation in disguise) coming from a less government republican pres? Something stinks really bad…"
Martin L.
"Your overall knowledge of economics really impresses me. Is that a product of college classes or moving and shaking on the street all these years? I think you’re right on with just about everything you said!
Exactly what I saw coming with Fannie and Freddie is here, huh? (4 homes vs. 10). That caps us out unless we can make the 80% construction loan proposition work. Tony told me that an appraisal of his place in St. Charles is scheduled. I hope Kim (and the other appraisers out there) have the vision to see the true ARV before the repairs are done to make this program work. If it does, and investors scores, income and debt ratios are good, then the cap on # of homes is no longer a concern, correct?
Have a good one. Golfing out at Lake Carroll all weekend with the old college buds."
Hi Joshua & Heather,
Thanks for your e-mail to continuously remind all of us investors to stay on
course and March ahead of this horrible economic crisis. And that poem….it
was AWESOME!!
Gene and I are trying to wrap things up in Romeoville. The Village of
Romeoville took over 1 month to issue our plumbing, electrical, etc. permits.
But to let you know how things are going out there, Gene got an actual hand
applause from several neighbors after he installed a bay window to replace the
existing slider glass door in the front of the house. Wow! It’s really
a "FEEL GOOD" thing to actually be improving the neighborhood.
Is First Choice still doing loans to investors? In addition, Romeoville is
not a Mass Consumption Series…what is the process of adding it to the
Series? Thanks for all your help. We would never have been BELIEVERS wasn’t
it for your program.
Gene & Geri K
"Its great day Josh! I sent Beth over the Lease packet this morning. I’m assuming she received it however the fax I use is extremely unreliable so let me know if she didn’t. I will be in touch ASAP about the next one-looking to get that going real quick. Must say…pretty impressed with the process and how smooth this entire thing was."
Thanks,
Josh P
"I haven’t heard back from Tim on the pre-qualify, he did tell me that they were doing only the 80% deal now. Which from my perspective means no money out of pocket, and can still pull out equity from Citizens if I want to. Bryan said he was working on some Carpentersville stuff. Hopefully something breaks soon, I’m itching for another property!"
Jim M.
"Hi Joshua,
Just wanted to tell you that you make more sense that just about anyone. I started as a flipper and when some homes did not sell, I just converted them to "rent to own". As you know, that is mostly a rental, but a handful have cashed me out. We now are mostly living off the rental income and like you I am finding a bunch of houses between 50 and 60 cents on the dollar.
I work in the near west, south, and southwest suburbs. I live in Hinsdale, so I try to stay close so I can stay on top of my rentals. One of these days, I will get something out in Aurora.
I have sources of cash so the aquisition and fixup is not the problem. My biggest problem is cash out refinancing after I have fixed up a junker and put a renter in. My wife and I each have multiple loans (more than 4 each) in our name, so banks are balking.
Do you know of any banks that will refinance investors with multiple loans? Since I bought them right and rehabbed them right, I have no problem with 75% LTV of current appraised value? Thanks for your help and keep the emails and deals coming."
Sincerely,
Gary M.
"What I came to find was that Robert Anthony Real Estate had built a team of associates that cover every aspect of the process for me so that I wouldn’t have to learn by my own mistakes. This includes:
• Identifying the distressed (typically foreclosed) properties in the price range to make good rentals
• Purchasing them with their own cash and wholesaling them to their clients for 55 to 70 cents on the dollar of the after repair value
• Partnering clients with attorneys with years of experience focusing on this area of real estate to assist with establishing LLC’s to hold the properties in, and closing on them
• Bringing in contractors that deliver on everything promised within weeks after purchase for less than half of what the typical contractor would charge for repairs
• Identifying and having relationships with progressive banks that understand the rehab and rent process, and will offer the funding needed to complete the project
• A leasing agent who specializes in quickly getting the property rented for you and filling out all of the necessary paperwork to do so
Every aspect of the business was covered to put my mind at ease about finally moving forward with my plan. Within a week, I had purchased my first property for $104,500 including Series LLC costs with 10% down. The rehab of the property was approximately $9,000 and was complete in 3 weeks. When I went to cash out refinance the property, and received back everything that was put into the project, it appraised out at $153,000. Within two months I had built $39,000 in equity without ever picking up a hammer. My leasing agent had a renter in the home within a month of completion of the rehab, and I was ready to move on to the next one.
Since then, I have completed the same process on two additional properties, and will be evaluating another one shortly. Here are some details from those projects:
• Purchased a distressed property for $152,000 with 10% down. Put approximately $11,000 into rehabbing the property which took less than 4 weeks. Cash out refinanced the property to receive back what was invested in the project. The home appraised for $220,000. That’s right, $57,000 in equity in less than 3 months!
• Purchased a distressed property for $135,000 with 10% down. Put approximately $10,000 into rehabbing the property which again took less than 4 weeks. Went through the same cash out refinance process within 40 days to recoup my original investment in the project. The home appraised for $190,000. Another $45,000 in equity!
The rents I receive on these properties cover or exceed the PITI (principal, interest, taxes and insurance), and the homes should appreciate by an average of 5% a year.
To recap, in just over a year, I was able to build over $140,000 in equity without ever lifting a finger to rehab these properties. The key to this working is having access to the right properties, and a team of professionals to assist you with each step in the process along the way. Robert Anthony Real Estate has covered that for their investors. I was so impressed with what I experienced, that I moved my real estate license over to them, and am acting as an agent to assist others with duplicating what I have been able to accomplish.
Please keep in mind that while this is a wonderful way to build wealth, there is also work involved. You will need to follow up on things to complete the process on each home, you will get calls from tenants, there will be maintenance issues, and you may even experience a dead beat renter from time to time (they assist with that situation as well). But the upside far outweighs any issues that have arisen since I began this process.
If you are not getting the return you would hope for from your 401K, the stock market, or any savings plan that you have in place, and you are interested in learning more about leveraging real estate as an investment/retirement tool, please call me…"
Marty L.
"We can’t thank you enough for the services you and your staff have provided us. Instead of seeing that old 401k money flying out of our pockets we have 3 rented properties that we have pulled significant money out of, still have plenty of equity, are fully rented and we have positive cash flow. Unbelievable.
On top of that, you staff calls us to let us know of up coming opportunities, lets us know the status of rentals, etc.
Bruce called today about some potentials in a town I’ve never heard of, but he certainly made it sound inviting. He also told us about another Elgin opportunity. We’re looking forward to checking them out and hopefully moving forward on them this weekend.
We are assuming that your offer to lower the fee on our next property by $1,000 still stands. If you are "wholesaling" any of these, that would be good to know as well. Buying one more property would have us meeting our goal for the year, but given current market conditions, we shouldn’t let that stand in our way of doing as many deals as we can."
Thanks again,
Jim and Dawn