Advice Sought - 830 Credit Rating & $15K
I'm new to the site although not new to the real estate market. I've bought and sold 4 homes in my life and made over $100,000 - but they were all my personal residences. I live in Troy, Michigan (suburb of Detroit). The economy has affected my husband's work drastically (he is currently laid off)and we are in need of finally exploring creative REI! I've proved to myself I can make $ in RE, now I want to make an income from it! My husband is a carpenter and we initially thought purchasing distressed properties would be the way to go because of his talents but this requires holding them for a while, which we can't fiscally do. We would like to purchase below market value properties and "flip" them quickly. We just don't know what the first step is. We are researching local REI groups in our area, but we are in a pretty affluent county and most of them we have found have cost prohibitive membership dues. Any advice, recommendations, partnership ideas, suggestions or leads would be much appreciated! 
SJasky,
Glad to meet you.
With a 830 FICO why don't you just buy Troy on credit?
Now that I have said that, you just need to pick an investing method, gain the knowledge and apply the knowledge.
Your advantage at this time there are many loans available without showing proof of income since your husband is laid off, such as No Doc, NINA, etc., so this is not going to hold you back should you decide you want to purchase outright for resale.
Since you are new here, start reading some articles and posts then get back to us with something that appeals to you for more guideance.
John $Cash$ Locke
To SJasky:
You need to educate yourself! I would recommend buying Ron Legrand's material on e-bay for a discounted price. There is also some good material on this site for sale.
If you wanted to be a dentist, you would have to go to school right?
Just remember, the only place success comes
before work is in the dictionary!
Best Riches
Jeff Adam[ Edited by Jeffca on Date 01/11/2004 ]
Thanks for your reply John! Yeah, I was pretty surprised at my FICO, too. I began to get suspicious when I went to the Lexus dealership 3 years ago and they didn't even make me fill out any income forms or anything after he'd pulled my TRW. I figured I needed to know my FICO after that. Needless to say, I've been able to do two no-doc re-finances on my residence and got 5% on a 30 year fixed loan - so, I'm pretty happy. I just didn't think I'd be able to do that with a non-homestead property. Now with my husband laid off, I'm cash poor and credit rich (although I have no credit card debt whatsoever). We are going to keep researching on these forums. I am leaning towards doing exactly what you suggest, I want to purchase below market properties and turn them over quick for a tidy profit. I'm just a little gunshy - and need to know the best way to spot a good deal. I know my city VERY WELL and the property values around here. Trouble is, most homeowners around here know what their property is worth too! I just don't know where to find below market properties . . . certainly not in the paper. My county website has a list of pre-foreclosures and the timeline on which they are operating, but I don't know how to find out when the sales are and I don't know enough about buying "on the steps" as that seems to be a bit advanced. I'm also a little confused on the procedure if you get contact information for the property owners on a foreclosure - and lets say you actually have contact with them - what kind of a deal are you going to make and with whom (them, bank)? I'm reading all I can get my hands on, but it sure is hard sorting it all out. There's SO much information and some of it is conflicting - some are just different opinions. It's clear that many systems work - I just need a decent plan that will work for ME!
You are ahead of the game in some respects because you have a skill that you can use to add value to a house in disrepair.
Most new investors dont have any way to add value until they learn some creative ways of buying.
I didnt bring much to the table except a desire to learn.
It also helps to have great credit.
You could use credit cards to finance purchase or repairs. I wouldnt normally recommend this, but if you were doing the carpentry yourself and have control over the costs and the time it takes, then you are at a far lower risk than a newbie that is hiring contractors he never met and paying them with high interest rate revolving credit.
IF drive around and find houses that need work. Yes, owners know the value but some want to sell.
Be sure to price in a good profit for your time and hard work.
good luck,
N.
well i would go forth and research more on the preforclosure market since you found "the list" already. of course they know what their house is worth, they have to know that and if they dont tell them how much their house is worth. dont hide the truth from them otherwise you're trying to con them or something like that and thats not what we're here for.
for people in preforeclosure... its much "easier" to try to negotiate with them the price of the house becuase look whats the best and worst case scenerio??? best case is that they walk away from the sale of their house with money in their pocket, worst is they get foreclosed on.. what decision would they have to make??? many like to try to stick it thru hoping 100k will fall into their lap a week before the sale so they can get their problems solved.
my point is that the preforclosure route is a pretty good start for beginner investors.
hope this helped.
[addsig]