Anybody here used to be a landlord?

[twuoo]

From what I understand, the terms for most of the homes I'm looking at are cash sales only. You have to have proof of funds before you can even make an offer.

Anyway, I lost the house. The realtor told me to bid $14,000 and the bank went with the other bid of $14,900.

I'm kinda bummed. First time I've contemplated buying a house in over 3 years now. *boohoo*

Had I got the house, I would have most likely ended up living in it, as I'm just renting now.

[StartingOver08]

AT those prices I can understand the cash only sales. Most lenders have a floor under which they will not lend. Last time I ran into that issue, the floor was $50k. Of course, things may be different now and YMMV.

There are probably other homes twuoo.

[relief13035]

What does a $14k house look like?

[twuoo]

This particular house was about 900 sq ft, 2 bed, 1 bath, slab, 2 1/2 car garage, fenced, 50 x 100 size lot, nice sub, aluminum sided, maybe 1940's.

I'm kinda kicking myself for not bidding more.

I always thought in bidding wars, you get to make counter offers after you hear what the other side is will to shell out???

But I wasn't given the choice to counter offer.

Today I saw inside a house that needed extensive remodeling due to water damage. They were asking $25k for the house. But the last valuation had it at $97k. What a deal for someone who is a handyman!

When I visit some of these houses, it makes me cringe to think how people could live in such deplorable situations.

[tknj99]

I own 4 rental properties. Just sold 1 that i bought in 2003 for $20k loss of original down payment. So... for $20k i basically bought 6 years worth of headaches. I am extremely underwater on the rest which will lead to my BK. I'd say unless you stick to the original formulas and have 6 months worth of rent in the bank in savings for each property and can have positive cash flow, stay away. I had no savings the last 2+ years and when the tenants started losing their jobs, stopped paying, etc.. It was headache city..

[twuoo]

Well, the house that I originally lost in the bidding war became mine! The people who beat me with their bid never came to the table with EMD.

So I ended up buying the house for $14k. My family is helping to finance it because the banks wants only cash deal.

It'll probably take a good $15k to fix it up, maybe more. The house has pretty severe water damage from pipes bursting. The neighbor said somebody called the water department after water was seen coming out the front door! OMG!!!

The place is going to get gutted.

My family is giving me the house and all related costs to repair as a "gift."

I plan on renting it until I can sell my current residence.

The only payments will be taxes, which are less than $1500/year and the utilities.

So this is very new to me. I'm sure to learn alot about home repairs! Working tightly with a close neighbor friend to do the majority of the repairs.

Closing on Tuesday! yippy!

[StartingOver08]

Congratulations on your purchase! I hope everything goes well at Tuesday's closing and your subsequent remodeling.