HELP - DG Newbie needs help purchasing own home

How much does your landlord owe on the property, why is he selling it, and where is it located? What does he plan to do with the proceeds from the sale of the house?

Hi TRSD:

Thanks for your reply.

The property is in Herndon, Virginia.

The owner has informed us that he has a 15-year loan on the property and — judging from his behavior — has to get out fast.

He bought the house for $433,000.

Not sure how much he owes on it.

He won't tell us more than this. He has entertained our "seller-carry" suggestion, but I'm afraid the monthly payments to cover his 15-year loan would be too high for us.

Thoughts?

Tough to structure some terms unless the $300k you qualify for would pay off his existing loan on the property. Again, it depends on why he needs to sell. If you can't find his problem, it's tough to offer a solution. Do you know what his payments are in relation to the rent? If you could find out when he bought it, you could get a rough idea of how much he owed if he didn't take out a second or equity line of credit. Deals can be structured but both parties need to be on the same page. Your landlord is just bound by conventional thinking.

For instance, I was speaking with a lady who needed money and wanted to sell a note on some land she and her husband owned. The note was for $225,000. Based on what she was telling me, things didn't make sense. There were a lot of red flags. To make a long story short, her husband finally discounted the note to $200,000 for an early payoff and the borrower took them up on it. Then she tells me they only needed $50,000. Had she told me that to begin with, I could have offered to purchase $50,000 of the note for a payment of $57,500 when the note was paid off. Factoring in the interest, they lost close to $20,000 by not letting me know the facts, and not knowing that they could sell just part of the note. That's the price of conventional thinking.

Thanks, TRSD, for your reply.

Yes, our landlord is not being forthcoming on what he owes or what his payments are.

He does say he just wants to get out of the house, so he's not going to work with us regarding any seller-financing or mortgage assumption deals.

We're going to keep looking. There's a solution out there; I just know it.

A suggestion would be if the owner won't talk to you, there are plenty of savvy investors on here. Tell the landlord you may have someone that can help out in this situation and see if you can get someone wit a little more experience to talk to the landlord and get at what the critical details about the situation so you can evaluate with that investor if it can work. That may take the emotion out of the affected parties. I have a feeling there is something there that that landlord is unwilling to share. But you haven't provided enough details about the deal to make the situation viable.

Thank you so much, Wsymmes.

The owner is a closed book with a lock on it, a closed book with a lock on it in a locked vault, really.

At this point we're just looking to make up the $200,000 we're short via an equity partner or a debt partner.

We may have a little bit of money to put down, and with the area redeveloping fast in Herndon, VA (Metro station being built, elevator townhomes under construction blocks away) perhaps it would make it attractive for an investor come in with a 2nd Trust Deed or as a hard money loan.

We have (4) four weeks, until Sept 30th, to get this deal done!

Thank you Wsymmes and TRSD.

We'll keep you posted!!!