Closed House #2

In my previous blog post I mentioned that I found my second real estate property. Quick update that the process is now complete and I’ve closed on house #2!

The purchase price was $58,700, and I put a down payment of $23,480. The closing costs came out to $3,841, for a total amount of $27,321. The cap rate is 11% and the cash on cash return is 6%.

I learned a lot from the closing process, and I want to share some lessons with you…

1. When signing the documents remotely, you need to use a notary to verify that it is in fact you who is signing the documents. Well, my wife and I are currently out of the country and needed to use a foreign notary. The title company recommended we go to the local US embassy since not all foreign notaries are accepted. When I called them, the nearest available appointment wasn’t until the middle of December! So, with some research, I found a local notary that would work. The problems with this:
   • It was super stressful, as we hardly had any time to complete this process and mail the documents before the closing date.
   • It cost more than I originally factored in the deal. I always like having all the facts and all the numbers ahead of time and I definitely don’t want surprises or additional costs at the time of closing.
2. Keep full control of the process. You need to decide when you want to close the deal and, based on that, work back. For example, let’s say your turnkey company updates that the house will be ready on November 15th and that a tenant is moving in on November 17th. If you want to close on November 17th, make sure everyone knows this and have the title company prepare the documents well in advanced.
3. Make sure you know how you’re going to wire the funds. For our first purchase, we paid using a check, no problem. In this case, with our being overseas, we thought it would be easier to wire the money. As it turns out, Chase has a limit of $25,000 on the amount you can wire per day. This meant I needed to break down the wire into two wires. And, since the first wire was for $25,000, it was blocked by the bank because they thought it was suspicious, which caused another delay since I needed to explain why I was wiring so much money. The bottom line is that you should know how you’re going to send the money and what limits your bank has, and make sure it’s all ready ahead of time.

Finally, as with everything in real estate, I recommend you always ask “why” or “what are the implications of that” regarding anything you’re told, and any options you receive. For example, since it was Thanks giving around the time we closed on the house, the title company updated me that they’ll be closed on November 27th and 28th and that we could either close on November 26th or December 1st. Beyond the fact that this would mean losing a few days of rent income from those last days of November, as part of the closing costs, the buyer needs to pay interest based on the number of days between the closing date and the last day of the month, which comes out to $7 per day. Closing on the 26th meant I would have 7 days of interest to pay as opposed to closing on the 1st which would mean 31 days of interest. I paid $35 instead of $217.

So, those are a few lessons for you… but the important thing is that we closed on house #2!