All Forum Posts by: Keith Miller

The Missoula Real Estate Meetup has three main goals.

1. Learn more about the Missoula Market

2. Make authentic connections

3. Share strategies and information

As always, there will be no selling of any products or services, and is always free to attend.

Our speaker this month will be me, Keith Miller. I'm going to introduce an effective strategy in the current Missoula market, building backyard ADUs. ADU stands for Accessory Dwelling Unit, and these backyard units are growing in popularity nationwide. I'll explain why they're a good fit for the Missoula market, how the recent changes to their regulations make them more investor friendly, and lessons I learned while I built mine.

Shout out to Brady Potts, who managed to make title services actually really interesting in our August meeting. There are a lot of ways to mess up purchasing an investment property, and skipping the consultation of a title company is a great way to get yourself into trouble. Thanks so much Brady!

Heads up, we're going to try and meet outside next time, all the way in the back of the property under the huge outside patio roofed area, depending on the weather and availability. Our usual area next to the inside playground got a bit noisy last time.

I'm having success with buying houses with owner occupied mortgages, putting in sweat equity, building an ADU, then repeating that process by renting out the old house and buying another. But I'm wondering how often I can repeat this process. I'd like to do it once per year, or possibly even faster, but I want to make sure I'm not violating any Fannie Mae regulations, because I really like putting down only 5%, which saves me cash for the ADU build.

Does anyone know how quickly I can get another owner occupied mortgage after my last one?

Thanks!

@Dave Passey

Hey Dave and all, I thought you'd be interested in this: Missoula was named as one of the top three places to flip a house in America. They determined it by looking at the metrics of median selling price and average remodeling costs, which is a little wonky to only look at those two variables. But still, it's pretty crazy for Missoula to hit the top three in the nation on those metrics. 

https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/best-places-flip-house-according-wallethub

TSI has been great to work with, specifically Brady Potts there if you can get him!

Our speaker this month will be Brady Potts, who works at Title Services Inc., one of Missoula's largest title companies. He's going to discuss best practices for buying and selling in the Missoula Market, what to pay attention to, and red flags to keep an eye out for.

Shout out to Courtney McFadden, who did an awesome job presenting at our last meeting. She showed how hot the Airbnb market is, and what she's seeing as an agent and investor in the Missoula Market.

Heads up, we're going to try and meet outside next time, all the way in the back of the property under the huge outside patio roofed area, depending on the weather and availability. Our usual area next to the inside playground got a bit noisy last time.

Anyone have experience working with commercial lenders at Stockman's or Treasure State? I'm looking to build a relationship with them and would love help with who to start with. 

Thanks!

Hello,

I'm in Missoula Montana, where we've seen a crazy amount of appreciation and supply remains very low. Our median house price has risen from $320K to $430K in one year. I'm hoping to find seller financed deals for single family houses, and am wondering how viable getting seller financing deals will be. Every house on the MLS is getting upwards of 10 offers, and I'm trying to figure out whether seller financing could work in a market like this. Any advice is appreciated,

Keith

Yeah, since I'm trying to hold it afterwards, refinancing with a conventional lender seems like the best plan. I got feedback from Ryan Frey today that investors would likely be skittish if I was occupying the house, as they would have a harder time repossessing it if I stopped making payments on their note. Montana has a "Homestead Exemption" which protects up to $250,000 of the value of your primary residence from creditor's claims, which means an investor wouldn't be able to get their money back if I failed for some reason. 

I'll have to figure out how to get financing for the ADU build from something like a construction loan, HELOC, a personal line of credit, or something like that.

Hello All,

I'm an investor in Missoula Montana, and am trying to figure out the best use of OPM for expanding my buy and hold portfolio. Both of my deals have both dealt with "backyard development", first I converted a garage into an ADU, and now I'm building two backyard townhouses. I'm trying to figure out how to use OPM to repeat this procedure, as it's been very lucrative for cashflow.

My first draft of a plan is to borrow in the neighborhood of $150K from an investor, put 5% down and live it in myself, and build a backyard ADU while putting sweat equity into the main house through tiling, replacing/refinishing cabinets, installing new flooring, etc. I can cashflow about $1,500 per month on the first house I did this with, so I'd love to do it again.

But I'm looking for feedback on what you guys think will work as far as partnerships or other structures to make this a win-win for both parties. I'm hoping to hold it after everything is done, so maybe that means just getting a bank refinance after the property has been improved and stabilized?

Yeah I agree that a hot plate and is sufficient for it as an Airbnb, that's what we've been doing for years, but we're trying to transition to a rental, and I'm thinking that long-term tenants have different needs. 

Thanks Jonathan for the tip about an induction plate and a Breville countertop convection oven, that sounds like exactly what I need, and would really simplify things from an electrical perspective.