Refinance Almost Done

The refinance of Rental #1 is almost done. As usual, there has been a flurry of last minute activity. I received the docs via FedEx today and was planning on having them notarized today and sent back. Turns out, I can't do that. The lender wrote up the paperwork as if I will sign them tomorrow. Since these are notarized, I can't just sign a different date, so I have to wait until tomorrow to get all the papers notarized. Pretty silly if you ask me....

Tenant Late With Rent (Updated)

I spoke with my property manager yesterday and discovered my tenant is still late with his rent. Last week, he paid $550 of the $750 and said he'd pay it all by the end of the week. Since then, we've received $100 from his church to go towards the rent. While my PM was checking her computer system, she saw one screen that said he was all paid up and another showed he still owed money, so she was going to research that some more and find out the real...

Real Estate Investment Profit Calculator

There is no shortage of real estate and mortgage calculators on the web. Almost all are pretty simple, but they do a decent job of giving you a general estimate of what to expect given a certain set of assumptions. Some time ago, I came across the most comprehensive real estate investment calculator I have ever seen. I think I found it via Clifford of Changing My Direction, but I'm not 100% sure.This calculator not only takes into account standard...

Analysis: Why Did Rental #1 Appraise Lower?

Since it's a lazy Friday afternoon, I decided to investigate why my appraisal of Rental #1 came back lower than one made less than 1 year ago. So I started looking over the two side by side and doing a point by point comparison. Here are the major highlights of what I found. NA refers to the new, lower appraisal I had done. OA refers to the original appraisal done in September, 2006.Housing trends:NA: sell time 3-6 monthsOA: sell time less than 3...

Rental #2 Deal Is Dead

I got word last night that the tenant's housing assistance contract with Section 8 has been canceled, so Rental #2 is no longer a Section 8 house. It also means the tenant will likely have to move out, since she probably will no longer be able to afford the rent.The seller thinks the problem lies with letting the old property managers continue to manage the property for so long. They had told Section 8, they were the property owners and apparently...

Partial Rent Received

I spoke with my PM today and she tells me that on Monday, my tenant paid $550 of the $750 rent due and he promises to pay the remainder by the end of the week. She told him he better or she will be at the courthouse on Monday starting eviction procedures. I agreed that I want him evicted if he hasn't paid by then. From everything I've heard, it's bad practice to accept a partial rent payment and, if it were me, I wouldn't have accepted it. However,...

Rental #1 Apraises Lower Than Expected

My mortgage broker got the appraisal back today and it was lower than expected. I think the original appraisal I got when I bought the place was for $90,000. This one came back at $81,000. I guess that explains why the original appraiser was not willing to re-certify his previous appraisal. What this means to me is my refi loan cannot be as much as I wanted. (Well, if I wanted to exceed the 80% LTV ratio and pay PMI, I could still get my original...

Appraisal Done, Rent Late

I got an email from my property manager this weekend saying the tenant in Rental #1 had not yet paid his rent. She sent him a letter and also spoke with him and he claimed he would drop the rent off in the PM company's night drop over the weekend. No word yet on if he did or not. I asked if the PM told him he'd also have to include the late fees in his payment and haven't gotten a response to that email. I checked the lease and the late fees are...

Stop The Insanity!

After I tagged him yesterday, Kenric tagged me back. Bastard :-)Five Reasons I BlogMotivation. Back when I started blogging in July, 2004, I viewed the blog as motivation for me to follow through on my plans. I had a habit of starting things and not finishing them or only doing something once. I had just sold my first investment property and wanted something to drive me to keep up investing in real estate. The need for more blog fodder proved to...

Rental #1 and Rental #2 Updates

Trisha called me today and updated me on the status of my various Oklahoma properties.My property manager is set to meet with the appraiser at Rental #1 on Thursday. That should be the final step needed to get the refinance rolling. Well, then all the paperwork needs to be signed, but that's just mailing things back and forth.Rental #2 still has some work that needs to be done to get it up to spec for the Section 8 inspection. However, the tenants...

Tagged: Magazine Meme

Trisha has taken a break from building her empire and tagged me to find out what magazines I read on a regular basis.This one's easy. I read exactly one magazine regularly: Cook's Illustrated. I love to cook and what I like about this magazine is they don't just give recipes. They explain what different ingredients and techniques they tried, the results, and discuss how they came to settle on the ingredients and methods they present. The engineer...

At Last! A Realistic Retirement Outlook From Major Media

My monthly Schwab statements include a financial newsletter. I usually toss these in the trash after scanning them because, quite frankly, they don't have much information that I don't already know. However, the April issue pleasantly surprised me. Although it still doesn't have much info that is new to me, it does feature an article that caught my eye titled "Five Retirement Myths To Ignore." What struck me was that this is the first article I've...

Schwab Annouces Global Real Estate Mutual Fund

My monthly Schwab statement included a newsletter that featured an announcement about a new mutual fund Schwab is starting. It's called the Schwab Global Real Estate Fund and it will invest in REITs and REOCs (real estate operating companies). The initial subscription period is May 1, 2007 through May 30, 2007 and the initial price is $10.00 per share, with a $2,500 minimum ($1,000 minimum for retirement accounts and $100 minimum for custodian accounts)....

Rental #1 Refi Update

On Saturday, I got an email from my escrow agent regarding the refi of Rental #1. It was the Quit Claim deed transferring the title from my LLC to my wife and I personally. This needs to be done because the lender will not mortgage to an LLC. As soon as the mortgage is recorded, I'll transfer the title back to the LLC. I again reminded the escrow agent that I plan to do this. She said no problem. I need to watch this, because I just know it's a step...

Spoke With Property Manager

I got a call this morning from my property manager. She said she was following up and wanted to make sure I got my rent check. Well, it's a bit late to be returning the voicemail I left over a week ago, but at least she did return the call. I told her I got the check on the 24th and that I know she said her accounting department was running behind last month, but I hoped it wasn't always going to be that late. She said the checks normally go out...

Refi of Rental #1 Delayed

I got a call from my mortgage broker today. Apparently, the appraisal of Rental #1 hasn't been done yet! I had an appraisal from late last year, so we were trying to use the same appraiser to do the new appraisal, figuring it would be less work for him and it could be done quickly. That turned out not to be the case. My mortgage broker says the appraiser is not returning his calls and is just blowing him off, so we're going to use a different appraiser...

Another Louisiana Update

A month ago, I reported that payments on my investment in commercial property in Louisiana were close to resuming. I got word today that the lawyer who was drafting the second mortgage has been swamped for the past 2 weeks, but he promised to get a draft of the mortgage out today. The second mortgage holders have the funds ready to pay the first mortgage holders (including me) and we're just waiting for the paperwork to be finalized. The loan is...