Category: buyer

  • 3 Smart Financing Strategies for an Investment Property in Ohio

    Smart Financing Strategies for an Investment Property in OhioPopular television shows make real estate investing seem easy with guaranteed profits. What these shows don’t show you are the behind-the-scenes tribulations that investors must go through in securing and rehabbing properties.

    If you are new to real estate investment property buying, use these three smart financing strategies for an investment property in Ohio to reduce your stress and improve chances of profitability.

    3 Smart Financing Strategies for an Investment Property in Ohio

    1. Consider Financing That Includes Rehab Costs

    Most investment properties need some level of fixing. Even if you are purchasing the property to rent out, there will most likely be things you need to do in order to prepare the property for rental. Highly distressed properties may need a complete gutting and rebuilding.

    Factor all costs of rehab into your budget. If the cost is considerable, include a contractor’s estimate for the cost of remodeling the property. Seek a mortgage lender that funds loans that include construction costs. There are some smaller, niche specific lenders that do this. Even the FHA has a lending program that includes construction costs as part of one, complete loan.

    Not only does securing funding with these costs help ensure you have the money to fix the property; it also keeps the entire loan under one note. This usually keeps interest rates lower with more manageable payments. Keeping your own cash in hand is ideal whenever possible.

    2. Make a Large Down Payment

    This may seem like a no-brainer, but many new investors think that they can get into a property with 0 to 5 percent down. While there may be some lenders willing to extend credit on an investment property for these terms, the rates are generally higher and only offered to experienced investors with track records and other assets to back the property.

    Lenders view investment properties as the first place a person will “let go” of assets if financial hardships occur. Simply put, if you were to face serious financial issues, you would most likely keep making payments on your personal home and stall any payments in investment properties. This makes investment properties foreclosure higher risks, thus coming in with 20 percent or more is imperative.

    Not only will most banks require at least 20 percent on investment property, the more you put down, the more favorable your interest and loan terms become. Of course, you still need to maintain enough cash and savings to protect your own personal finances and be able to prepare the property for rental or sale.

    Smart investors often use a home equity line of credit on their own home to make a large down payment and then refinance the equity line on the new property, paying off their personal HELOC. This is leverage debt and a common strategy among real estate investors.

    3. Ask for Owner Financing

    An investment strategy not always considered is owner financing. With loans advertised by every financial institution, it has become common practice for buyers to get a loan through a financial institution. However, historically owners often financed property sales.

    You might be able to find great investment properties where owners are willing to finance the transaction. A situation where an owner has the property free and clear of a mortgage but is moving to downsize or perhaps inherited the property might be a situation where owner financing is a very viable option.

    It is always wise to ask if the owner is willing to finance. The structure usually is a short-term loan with a moderate down payment and monthly payments for a fixed period of time. These are great deals but can be hard to come by.

    IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN SELLING YOUR Cincinnati & Dayton PROPERTY, PLEASE CONTACT US FOR A CASH OFFER. WE ARE EXPERIENCED REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS AND CAN CLOSE QUICKLY AND PAINLESSLY.

  • Sell Inherited Property: The Tired Landlord

    The house was a rental. She had inherited the property from her mother-in-law. The renters that were living in it were not paying their rent. She didn’t know exactly how to handle the situation – she’d never had to evict anyone before, and she didn’t want to have to sink the time and money necessary to go through the whole eviction process to remove her bad tenants.

    The house needed work, too. Her late husband had started trying to do the repairs himself, but there was still a lot left to fix, and the tenants hadn’t done anything to make the condition of the home any better. In fact, they had just made it even worse. What was she going to do? How do you sell a house with bad tenants in it that needs repairs? How do you sell a house without paying commissions? Can you sell a house like that fast and walk away better for it? She felt stuck!

    Selling an inherited house wasn’t something she did every day. Her options at this point seemed to be:

    • Evicting the tenants through an attorney, then spending thousands of dollars on repairs, then listing it with a Realtor, then hoping it sells. Wow. That’s at least several months of stress, hassles, and worries, not to mention the actual financial commitment! How long would it take to evict (five weeks or more, read more about Ohio evictions) ? How much would that cost? After that, how long would the repairs take to complete? How much would that cost? What if the contractors did bad work or took forever to finish? Then she’d have to list it with an Agent, and how much would that cost? How long would it take to find a buyer? What if the buyer required her to do even more work to the home? What if their lender fell through and she had to start the actual selling process ALL OVER again?? This was NOT what she wanted to do.
    • Ignore the problem until the city condemned the house or the tenants managed to destroy it entirely. Geez, that would be horrible. She still had to pay taxes on it. She was running deeper and deeper into the red with each passing month.
    • Find a homebuyer willing to buy houses as is. If she could skip the eviction process and the repairs, and find someone who would buy an inherited property without repairs, then she could get out from under this house!

    “We buy houses for cash, any condition, any situation! Get a fair cash offer for your home, no obligations.”

    She read the words several times before she decided that it was worth her time to talk to us and see exactly who we were and what we were all about. She was skeptical at first, of course. It sounded too good to be true. Were there really “professional” homebuyers around that bought houses like hers for cash for a fair price? Since there were no obligations, she had nothing to lose by chatting with us.

    Tony answered her call. She explained her whole situation after he reassured her that we were real and truly local. He was no stranger to this type of situation, and he knew exactly how to help! Yes, we could buy the house as is, in its current condition, and we wouldn’t ask her to do any repairs. Yes, we could buy an inherited home with bad tenants in it and she wouldn’t have to worry about them. Yes, we could close in one week or in ten weeks. Yes, we would be paying cash for the house. Yes, we would be walking her through every step until closing!

    I needed to get out. Get from underneath it – it was a big weight on my shoulders. And you made it so easy, the next day I felt like… the weight of the WORLD had been taken off. SO easy, thank you!”

    We buy houses like this every single day in the Cincinnati and Dayton regions. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be stressful. Now she feels a HUGE sense of RELIEF. We are very happy that we were able to help, and we look forward to speaking to YOU if you ever find yourself in a situation similar to hers, or the many others we’ve worked with over the years!