My First Remote Deal is Taking Off!

That's FIRED UP Gena!! Great job!!

Rock the happy dance! too cute

Jen

Woo! Woo! ( Happy dancing happening in all areas of the country for you!)

Karen

Wow! You really got it going fast! And a PML too to boot? How'd you do that that fast?

GREAT JoB Gena!!!

Great job glad to hear about your deal. Looking forward to hear about your next deal. Way to take action.

Steve.

It sounds like the house could potentially be paid off before the tenant-buyer exercises their option.

Congrats again, and yes, I can see that cricket singing...

Chris

Congratulations, Gena!
Now that can get someone motivated!!
Way to go!

Chrissy

Great Job! Keep going!

Way to go GENA! !!!! That's AWESOME!!!!! way to step out of the box and invest out of area! ! That takes confidence and determination.congratulations!!!!
Jay

Your kind comments and shared dancing/enthusiasm are greatly appreciated and enjoyed! Also happy someone knew the cricket. Ha ha.
Mark, I like your comment about a great deal doesn't need to be lowballed! Thanks for that; I agree.
Tammy, its funny you think this happened quickly (I guess it kinda did), because I've been feeling like I just couldn't move those darn boulders quickly enough. My PML is my brother-in-law, but hey, it's a start, and I really believe once I have a model of a couple successful deals, lots more will follow.
And who can keep up with Jay! LOL
I'm dreaming of having my own turn-key properties to sell to others one day - why not think big(ger)! Look out Matt and Dean, I'm right behind ya!

just bcause they accepted quickly does NOT mean you paid /offerd ttooo much- as long as you get what you want out of it 'its all good'

CONGRATS!

Great Job Gena.

Great job. Gain the EDGE rocks and so do you!!

Congratulations!!!!!

Gena!

sounds like you're branching out! we're all cheering for you!

wishing you many more remote deals!

Valerie

I want to also congratulate you. I know what a great feeling it is when your offers are accepted. Keep pusing forward!

Congrats!

How hard was it to setup a remote power team? I'm looking to do the same thing in Florida, but I'm having no luck. Can you please go into detail on what you did to construct this deal? How do you know if the deal's good or not without being there? Do you have every property inspected? If so, I would imagine that costs a lot of money!

Just curious, and congratulations again! Keep it up!

First of all, thanks to all who have kindly sent congratulations and encouragements. It means a lot! I feel like after almost 2 years, I may have found my niche!
So, I am not an expert in setting up a remote power team. This is my first time. But I am happy to share what I have done.
First of all, I literally spent 2 days on my computer searching the web for anything having to do with "Real Estate Investment/Investing/Investors in Cleveland." It's pretty impressive the amount of information at our fingertips. OK, another age test - who remembers "Let you fingers do the walking in the yellow pages" LOL. No more pages, but same idea.
Where did I search? - well of course on Bing and Goggle - just general searches as above. But social networking sites are a goldmine. I did searches on LinkedIn, you tube, and facebook. One search leads to another depending on the results that come up. All this time I'm taking notes in a (spiral notebook - names, phone number, website.
What am I looking for? My first goal was a REI club. I contacted the president of my Seattle club who sent me the link to the national site, using this and other REI type sites, I found surprisingly little. I did find one club and called the president who promised to send me referrals via email, but never did. My philosophy is not to try people again and again. When they immediately fail to perform, what's the point?
So about day three I started in on the phone calls. I found some real estate agents who showed up in searches for investment. Amazingly, the first one I called seemed to understand investors and what I needed in a house - a good family neighborhood when families want to live - looking for lease/option tenants. (in Totally Fulfilled, Dean says something like - if you let the universe (I would say God) know what you want, it opens up for you) This realtor does lots of investment himself, been in business 30 years, and has 20 agents working for him. Sounded like a great match.
I grew up in Cleveland, so I have some familiarity, but I haven't lived there in over 20 years - I wasn't about to go on memories of long ago.
I contacted a cousin to go look with the realtor. This only worked one time because cousin proved to be disinterested in helping me.
In the mean time I found another realtor (friend of the cousin) and got in contact with her. Her boyfriend has multiple investment properties, and she was used to looking at houses with that eye. She offered to preview all the properties for me, saying if I was there, she'd be spending the time with me, so why wouldn't she just look in my place. Good point. I got back to the first realtor and told him just to do the same. Now, what I could do - and in some cases, will do - is have them take many photos of the house, or better yet a video with narrative while they walk through the home. However, so far both have had the ability to describe the condition and issues of any given home enough for me to make a decision. They pull the comps on the property; I research online using Totalview, Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, and of course the county site. Between their observations, the comps and the info on the websites, it's not hard to determine if a home is a good deal. And I love google maps street view. You can really get a feel for the area.
I'm not primarity interested in equity - though the properties I am offering on are at about 50 cents on the dollar - my main concern is ROI. I'm not considering anything under 20%.
Now to get the other members of the team, I'm asking my realtors and continuing with the online searches. I have 5 contractors referred to me and 3 property inspectors. I'm still in search of a property management company. I found a site that will find you one anywhere in the county, but I've been determined to find it on my own - no luck yet - I've got to resolve that quickly. I have a call into a property manager here in Seattle to get suggestions. Maybe there is a national association or something. NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK. I have found a bank who does no seaon refis nationally (thanks to another DG Fam member).
Whenever I talk to anyone, I do 2 things. Listen! React. How do they strike me? Does this sound like someone I want to deal with? Do they sound knowledgeable? Ask questions - business and "personal" as appropriate. People love to talk about themselves and "people do business with people they know, like and trust" Get them to like you. Decide if you like them. I tell almost everyone when I first do a business transaction, "I have no reason not to trust you. If you give me one, it will be all over" I say it that straight.
Property inspections? On the first offer I got accepted I had a property inspection done (after acceptance). It cost $295. It's an older home with some obvious issues and the realtor was not confident in "guaranteeing" it. I now have an offer on another home, and I did not use an inspection contingency. This offer is with the realtor who has been investing for 30 years, bought 40 properties at sheriff sales, and seems to have a very critical and experienced eye. I am trusting him. It is safer to have the inspection of course.
Well, Dominic, that's more words than you probably wanted - but thanks for asking!

Very helpful information. Thanks for spending all the time typing it.

Karen

Congratulations Gena! We have also put offers on our 1st Cleveland properties (I'm an Ohio native too). We have interviewed every community bank in our area and the best we can find is 6 months seasoning. Where did you find a no-seasoning bank? And who is doing your self-directed IRA? We're considering that option too. Thanks for your detailed description!!

congratulations! how exciting. i'm next door in IN. i may hop over to OH for some investing, but closer to home. thank you for all that information you typed too on putting your team together. very helpful.

This is what I love, love, love about this blog. People are so willing to help each other with detailed step by step descriptions of how they do things. There is such a spirit of family here as opposed to competition.

When we attended the Buying Summit in Las Vegas in December, there was a company there providing info and offering to set up the self directed IRA. Turns out, there are not lots of firms that have experience with this and purchasing real estate with it. We opted to use that company. They have a new name since December - they are now known as Mountain West IRA. Also, I know that Jeri Berry - of "Tom and Jeri" - a DGer can set them up.
I have called 10 billion banks (well almost) in Cleveland and other parts of Ohio and around Seattle, and not found a bank to do no-season refis. So in that pathetic way, I felt relieved to know Lois was having a hard time with that too. Another DGer tipped me off to a "direct bank" that does it nationally. Check out Modern Woodman Bank. I'm dying to find more. If anyone has another source, please share.

Congtatulations Gina. Was your offer accepted by the lender or just the homeowner? Many buyers get their offers accepted by the homeowner, but the offer must be accepted by the lender also. I love your enthusiasm,and wish you much success.

Thanks Frank! The acceptance surprised me. It was a short sale. The lender was a credit union and wanted it off the books. I've had a contractor look at it and talked to him just today. He thinks it was a great deal, needs minimal work and said he'd buy from me if he could! Happy news.

Modern Woodmen Bank (located in Rock Island, IL)
www.ModernWoodmenBank.com
www.MWABank.com

Kraig Sleaford
Loan Originator
Business phone :309-558-3163
ksleaford@MWABank.com

Loan Products Available:
1 to 4 Family Investment Properties
80% LTV / CLTV
No limit to number of properties owned

Rehab / "As Improved" Loans
80% of value subject to improvements
Funds held in escrow; released as work completed

Jumbo Loans
80% LTV / 89.999% CLTV

Condos/Townhomes - "Nonconventional" Properties
80% LTV / 89.99% CLTV

First Mortgage Purchases
Up to 95% CLTV

Construction Loans
80% LTV

He told us as well that Modern Woodmen can also do ACHs. So if you have an account with them (checking or savings, I don't really remember) you can have your tenant fill out a form and you can have the rent deducted from the tenant's account and transfered to your account. I want to say it's something like a 2 dollar fee or so for the transfer.

The above info was taken from a booklet that the loan originator passed out during our REIA meeting that was at the beginning of April. Feel free to double check and see if any info has changed. Please let him know that a member of "Greg and Matt's" group sent the referral.

Steinway024 has confirmed that they do no-season refi's and can lend out nationally.

I've been told that www.equitytrust.com can do self directed IRAs as well.

Sweeeet.great going and thanks for the detailed steps in investing outside our area.
I just wanted to advise others about checking their local and or out of town CREDIT UNIONS. I found one here that does NO SEASON refis.I was a member but didn't think they would do one because I DIDN'T ASK ....... ask and u shall receive!!!! .......even if u r not a member CALL every credit union and ask for the policy in joining.....I just joined another one out of town just because I was RELATED to another member.....don't lose out on opportunities for not ASKING. .GENA maybe u have done this but just wanted to share.AWESOME job on your out of town investing journey! !!!!!
Jay

Equity Trust Company also is set up to handle REI transactions through IRAs. Now, as investors, we're not allowed to use that IRA in connection with ourselves individually or our companies, but this IS a creative way to have any money in a self directed IRA usable for your business so the profits grow in your business instead of the tax sheltered IRA; but the IRA grows at the same time.

With a self directed IRA you can do private lending to other investors. (Always looking for those!!) But, also allowed with self directed IRAs are unsecured notes. If you want more info on that, let me know and I'll share.

Its so great to see you taking off in another state. I know firsthand how intimidating it is, but its a great way to get into low cost deals when you live in areas where 200K is a 'cheap' deal.

Thanks for taking the time to type all that out Gena! I really appreciate it

I definitely have a better understanding where to go now.

I think I know the answer but not sure.
Did you pay for the inspection out of your pocket or were able to get someone else to pay or at least reimbursed to you according to the contract details? How does that usually work?