A Tale of Two Flippers!!

My daughter and I are a team at Home Team of America, in San Antonio.  What we do there is sell houses and show houses to buyers.  However, on the side we are a team in a family-type business of buying depressed homes, fixing them up, and then selling them.  I say it's a family-type business in that I am the buyer, my daughter helps with remodeling and acts as realtor when house goes on the market.  My son Jeff is the major carpenter on the remodel, but since he can't be here all the time as he lives in N. Texas and has a family and attends college for a new career in computer programming, I use licensed plumbers, electricians, and carpenters also.


When we are not working on a house, my daughter and I love to buy depressed furniture, pieces that we find at Goodwill, or a client wants to throw away and we take it, at garage sale buys, and also just on the curb throw-aways.  It's always fun to see something that someone no longer can use or a piece that's been so damaged, come to life again with a new purpose, use, or personality.  Yes, personality,  furniture has it!!  Furniture might say mid century modern until we remove a piece of trim and add some chrome and then its personality is industrial chic.  We might change the color and add a padded seat and it goes from classy to homey. 


Tera and I are both artists and crafters besides being handy with hammers, trowels, nail guns and paint rollers; but all these things go together.  We use a lot of our furniture redos as staging in our house flips.  Right now a zebra print hand-painted drink cart sits in the corner of the living room on newest flip, while my Diva Table painted with a little girl in mind, sits beside a twin bed in a bedroom staged for a little gal. 


I tell you all this to inform you that in the near future, possibly this afternoon, we will have a joint blog called A Tale of Two Flippers on BlogSpot.  We will show step by step how we take a piece and change it.  We are not always doing them together, so Tera may write one blog about something she's finished (she's great with filing cabinets and desks!) and I might write one about something I accomplished in a flip house or a piece of furniture I've refurbished.  I have two really recent ones, I took a wooden coffee table with glass insets, removed the glass and added chrome.  Painted the wood black, and it now sits in my den. 


I recently found a hat tree (painted yellow) at a garage sale for $10!!!  I painted it many coats of white, and am in the process of polyurethaning it for protection and shine, and making a upholstered bench.  Tera painted the bronze hooks to silver, and I can't wait to stage an entry with it once finished. 


So if you are interested in seeing old things come back to life, you might checkout ATaleofTwoFlippers.blogger.com   


 Here is a table that was brown when I found it and now sits in my dining room filled with grandkids books and blocks. (shown in two stages) None of finished table!  Just in progress.

CHANGES, CHANGES, AND MORE

                     




I have been so busy that I haven't written in over a year,


May. 2015, I bought a Fannie Mae repo in San Antonio where my daughter lives and works as a realtor, I spent all summer renovating it, and sold it the week I put it on the market.


This was so successful so I bought another larger one this year.  I lived in it in the converted garage for four months while renovating.  It has not sold yet.


I moved my license here, so if you need a house in San Antonio, my daughter and I are a team at Home Team of America,


If you have specific questions about flipping houses, ask and Ill address that in next post.

Prudential Ada Realtors Converts to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Anderson Properties

Our company was started by Ada Glenn over 40 years ago.  She was the first woman broker in Amarillo with her own company, and at the end of our company as Prudential Ada Realtors it was the only real estate company that was open when she started it.  Hers was the only company remaining from that time.

Back in the 70's her son Greg Glenn bought the company from Ada when she wanted to retire, and he ran it admirably for all these years.  He is one of the most respected realtors in Texas, evidenced by his appointment to the committee that writes our contracts down in Austin, Texas; evidenced by being Realtor of the Year in the past; evidenced by winning an ethics award locally that's never gone to a real estate company before.  I am partial to Greg, because he was my next door neighbor while we were raising our kids, and he's the only broker I even considered when I got my license.

In September, Greg sold the company to Anderson Properties in Houston; and recently we converted to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Anderson Properties and Greg no longer is our boss.  He is now a regular realtor like the rest of us, but it is going to be very hard for us to NOT go to him with problems, because he is so knowledgeable about everything that happens in real estate in Amarillo and Texas. 

We look forward to being a part of the BHHS group, as it has already won the award for most respected real estate company and most recognizable in the USA. 

So if you see BHHS signs popping up, know that it is Berkshire Hathaway.  The name has changed, but the people in our office are the same ethical, knowledgeable people who were there when it was Prudential Ada Realtors.

Rentals, Decorating and More

Since I last wrote on this blog, I've been busy.  I've bought 5 rentals, redecorated 7 houses, and am in the process of the 8th, and more and more I'm being asked questions about remodeling and rentals, and less about my real job of being a realtor so....I'm going to start writing more about what people are asking me about.

Rentals.  My experience is that buying low, even when repairs are necessary, is the way to go.  I have 5 rentals that cost less than $35,000 and they rent from $400 to $850.  Yet if I bought one at $70,000 I doubt I'd get more than $950 for it; so why spend more to get less. 

How do I find houses, real honest to gosh houses for this price.  Two of mine were rentals for realtors and they were tired of the business or needed funds for other things and they hadn't sold in several months+, taxes were soon going to be due and they wanted them sold before taxes were due.  Then two of them were estate homes.  Kids inherited houses needing repairs and taxes paid and they just wanted out.  My final one was a Fannie Mae repo.  So I say buy low, renovate, rent high.

Until next time.

Tuscany Home in the Woodlands, Amarillo, TX

This is a fabulous home!!  Open concept, huge living area with formal dining, eat-in kitchen with eating bar and island.  Granite throughout.  Jenn Air appliances and convection oven and microwave.

The owners arrived on a day when we had a hurricane-forced windstorm plus rain.  This was a scarey day in Amarillo.  But it made an impact and they replaced all the windows with high energy efficient ones, and all in front and in bedrooms are shatterproof.  Take a sledge hammer to them, and they might break but not shatter and send glass into your eyes, arms and legs. 

This home was custom built and no expense was spared.  The blown in insulation is top dog.  Gorgeous tile and wood floors, jetted tub, fireplace in the master bedroom.

The home features a bonus room upstairs plus bath, and on the way, stop at the bar and enjoy a little t.v., or go relax in the sunroom and watch t.v.  The covered patio outside is perfect for barbecues and the patio off the dining area is stupendous for great views of the western rolling plains. 

The house has a new roof, new faucets, new patio cover, and soon to have new master shower tiles.  Also the owers are offering a $2,000 paint allowance or will let you choose the paint color and they'll have it painted with a contract to purchase.

I love the pantry door that tells you just what it is.  And the utility is large, lots of storage and has granite too. 

See for yourself.  Visit the utube videos.  One is straight shots and one is a walking tour

Here's one link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlRWSKVTiR0

This house will be open Sunday, May 11, from 2 to 4 p.m.  A door prize will be given to one lucky visitor. 

If you are interested in this home, email me at judydendy@sweethomeamarillo.com

Rentals are Booming.

Read an interesting article today about how investors are buying almost 33% of the houses and for cash.  How large corporations are buying hundreds at a time, and because of this are actually helping home prices go up in price.

They say that renting is at an all time high and that it seems to be the future.  More and more people can't afford a house and everyone has to have a place to live, so rentals are the way to go.

I bought a rental with a partner recently and paid cash and had it rented 3 days later.  Then we bought one that needed repairs.  We are about ready to rent it too.  Hoping it rents as easily as the first one did.  Wish I had the cash to buy more. 

If you need a rental in the Amarillo area, give me a call.  I'd love to help you find one.

New FHA Regulations in Regard to Collections and Judgments

Mike Clover sent me an interesting email, and I've received permission from him to quote his email.  This tells how FHA Regulations changed toward borrowers who have judgments or collections on their credit history.  He does a great job of giving information where you can understand it in a logical manner.

"In an effort to reduce risk in backing mortgage loans, HUD has once again revised its regulations, effective October 15. Mortgage Letter 2013-24 deals with credit analysis of collections and judgments, and outlines how lenders must proceed. As you probably know, the first step in FHA loan approval is use of the TOTAL Mortgage Scorecard.  This scorecard takes into account the presence of collections or judgments via the credit score. Should a borrower be approved through the TOTAL Mortgage Scorecard, no documentation or letters of explanations will be required. If TOTAL Mortgage Scorecard results in a "Refer," the lender must manually underwrite the loan – and must determine the cause of the collections or judgments. Was it disregard for financial obligations? Was it an inability to manage debt? Were there extenuating circumstances? In order to make this determination, the lender must gather supporting documentation, including a letter of explanation from the borrower for each outstanding collection account and/or judgment. It will be up to the lender to determine whether the explanation is consistent with other credit information in the file. Collections If the borrower's combined collection accounts equal $2,000 or more, the lender must perform a "Capacity Analysis." Medical collections and charge-offs are not included in this aggregate. However, collection accounts of a non-purchasing spouse ARE included here in Texas. Capacity analysis consists of one of the following: Payment in full of the collection account – using a verified acceptable source of funds. A payment agreement with the creditor, accompanied by a letter from the creditor verifying the monthly payment. This monthly payment will be included in the borrower's debt to income ratio. In the absence of a payment arrangement, the lender must calculate a monthly payment equal to 5% of the outstanding balance. This payment will be included in the borrower's debt to income ratio. Judgments Until now, borrowers were required to pay off court ordered judgments before being eligible for FHA insurance. Now there is an exception. Under the new regulations a loan may be approved if the borrower has entered into an agreement with the creditor to make regular monthly payments and has made a minimum of three such payments over a period of 3 or more months. Pre-payments will bring the balance down, but won't help with loan approval. The borrower must provide evidence that the payments have been made on time and in accordance with the agreement. And of course, the payment will be included when calculating the borrower's debt to income ratio. As with collections, in Texas and other community property states judgments against a non-purchasing spouse also must be paid off or meet the rules for exception. Disputed Accounts Many borrowers have found to their dismay that their credit reports contain inaccurate information. Some of that inaccurate information is the result of poor data entry, some is there because old accounts that should have "fallen off" the report have not been removed, some because the original bill was in dispute, and some are due to identity theft. Accounts that appear as "in dispute" on a borrower's credit report are not considered by TOTAL Mortgage Scorecard.  Therefore, they must be addressed in manual underwriting. Disputed accounts fall into two categories: Derogatory and Non-derogatory. Non-derogatory disputed accounts If a borrower is disputing non-derogatory accounts, the lender is not required to downgrade the application to "refer." However, if the dispute results in the borrower's monthly debt payments being lower than originallyindicated, he or she must provide documentation. Derogatory Disputed Accounts If the cumulative outstanding balance of such accounts is less than $1,000, a downgrade is not required. If the cumulative outstanding balance is $1,000 or more (excluding medical accounts) the borrower must provide a letter of explanation and documentation supporting the basis for the dispute. The lender must analyze the documentation to determine whether the account should be considered in the underwriting analysis. In contrast to collections and judgments, disputes involving a non-purchasing spouse are not included in the $1,000 aggregate balance. Identity Theft Disputed accounts resulting from identity theft and credit card theft are not included. However, the borrower must provide documentation verifying the charges as fraudulent. This can include a letter from the creditor and/or a police report. "