Stanhope Investments LLC

Score. I got a call back from Raheel this morning. He promised:

1. The tree will be taken out in 5-6 days.
2. The grass will be cut and the window fixed before the appraiser’s visit.

He also put me in contact with another lender, a bank named Flagstar Bank. Apparently they keep a majority of their loans in house. So thats good. I did have to pay for the appraiser. So add another $450. Total is now up to $950 out of pocket.

A few problems as noted by my insurance agent:

1. 35 foot pine which according to my guy could fall on the house or the neighbor’s with a gentle breeze.
2. Lack of a renter. State Farm doesn’t like to insure vacant homes. Just not good policy.
3. The back yard is a bit of a jungle.
4. Exterior needs pressure washing
5. Replacement window pane.

Its been over 24 hours. No reply from three phone calls. Judgement so far of the HomeVestors team, could be quicker on responding

In other news. “okay, I’ll check it out and take care of it.” Thats a phrase you never hear anymore. No one will look out for your interests better than you personally. There’s an automated site for rent collection. I really need to look into that.

Here’s an interesting tidbit. One of my tenants has ended a year long lease which automatically switches to a month to month lease. As a result, I may have difficulty closing on the refinance loan for Bixler.

I’ll have my property manager to contact the tenant to sign another year lease. Sounds like a good opportunity to raise the rent. Re-sign or pay an extra $30/mo. for the flight risk.

Work is almost complete and I’ve been told that there atleast three parties interested in purchasing the property. Wish me luck.

To help out my fellow human beings I decided to post my experience and thus I started this blog. 2116 Bixler is the property that inspired it. If you’d like to know more about real estate investing, I plan to share my knowledge and experience, so check out Real Estate Investing Basics. When you’re ready, I hope we can do business together some day. Legally speaking these are just my experiences, I make no guarantees.

Now on with the show.

March 2008. I needed cash. I had some income producing properties and I wanted to acquire more. I decided it was time to get into the rehab business. I had lived in Atlanta, a market where properties are relatively inexpensive. I felt comfortable knowing what a property should sell for in certain areas, and I knew that while it will cash flow negatively while it is under repair and not yet sold, I can afford it. I can’t say the same for where I live now.

April 4th, 2008 The property was advertised for $99k on the famous [and yes sometimes infamous] homevestors.com. The area supports prices around $135-$150k. I talked with Raheel Viranni of Viranni Properties LLC, a franchise of homevestors.com. We set up a deal where he would organize the hard money loan for $99k plus the cost of repairs, he would manage the repairs (estimated at three weeks), put me in touch with a refinance loan consultant and market the property for sale to a tenant buyer. The strategy is to find a tenant with decent job history that needs a bit of help with credit and wants to purchase the property. I also plan to refinance the hard money loan as soon as possible. The first payment on the hard money loan is May 1st. Closing on the refinance loan is scheduled for April 25th.

So far total out of pocket to me has been a $500 earnest money deposit.