All Forum Posts by: Ashley Lynn

@Joe Villeneuve Thank you for the advice. I’m having such  hard time with this decision. My husband wants to sell. I am torn. We live in South Florida. the property is worth at least $340,000 based on what two just sold for. It’s a 2/2.5 townhouse. I bought it in 2012 for $70,000. I still owe $70,000 after refinancing twice. Once to get out of mortgage insurance and again to get my current interest rate of 2.2% (closing costs, added some debts several years back, shortened the term of the loan). 

The taxes here are also high and we have a homestead on our home. So we only pay $2,300 a year in taxes. 

It’s been a while since I have been on this board. I purchased my current home in 2012. If I sold it today I would profit approx $250,000.

My end goal has always been rental properties and passive income. This is the only house we own. Our all in expenses are $1,100 but they are renting at $2,300, which is a nice chunk of change each month.

My dilemma is do we sell or do we hold the property as a rental? My other dilemma is if we do sell, I do not want to buy in this market. It seems counterproductive to sell a low risk property just to buy a high risk property.

We could live at my parents home for a year (it is their vacation home not their main home). But i would hate to go too long without a place of our own.

Would you sell and reinvest the profit or hold as a rental?

It’s been a while since I have been on this board. I purchased my current home in 2012. If I sold it today I would profit approx $250,000. 

My end goal has always been rental properties and passive income. This is the only house we own. Our all in expenses are $1,100 but they are renting at $2,300, which is a nice chunk of change each month. 

My dilemma is do we sell or do we hold the property as a rental? My other dilemma is if we do sell, I do not want to buy in this market. It seems counterproductive to sell a low risk property just to buy a high risk property. 

We could live at my parents home for a year (it is their vacation home not their main home). But i would hate to go too long without a place of our own. 

Would you sell and reinvest the profit or hold as a rental?

@Russell Brazil yes I’m certainly concerned about assessments. My current home is a HOA and so far so good. They have reserves so no assessments since I purchased in 2012 but i know this isn’t always the case. Problem is in my area and price range all I can afford is condos. The goal is to move into the new property for about a year before buying a third. Any suggestions?

@Wayne Brooks exactly. The one I’m really having an issue with now everything is all set but the roof being in the process of repair might be an issue.

@Andrew Boettcher Hi Andrew, yeah they know we will reside there. I guess the HOA must show the lender everything is in order. One property I’m looking at everything is good, they have reserves, owner occupy ratio is good but the roof is currently being repaired through the insurance company. The lender stated ‘if there are serious problems with the roof the HOA will not pass’ If it doesn’t pass I need to put down 25%

Looking for some advice. We have been wanting to buy a second home to move into and rent out our current property which would cash flow $600 a month. A few months ago we took out a second mortgage of $25,000 since we were told we could put as little as 5% down. We’ve put in offers but a lot of condos either need to pass a survey by the lender or we need to put 25% down which would wipe out our second mortgage and most of our savings which I don’t feel comfortable doing. We are not in a rush to buy but we are getting pressure to put 25% down to get the deal (which aren’t even great deals in this market). Our goal is to eventually buy a third and rent out the second property as well so we also want to make sure the numbers make sense as an investment. We are also losing out to cash offers since our price point is low (under $150,000 in south Florida). Anyone else running into issues with putting a small percentage down?

Hi everyone! Florida investor here. Im about to purchase property #2 and will use equity from #1 for down payment. I was planning on doing a HELOC until someone mentioned a second mortgage. My understanding is it would be one lump sum and a low fixed rate of 4.25-4.47%. Since I won’t need to draw on the equity over the years this seems like the better option based on the interest rate. Are there any other differences or would one or the other hurt my ability to obtain a mortgage for property #2? Thanks for any input!

@David Collier Jr That’s a huge help. I’ve been searching mls as well. My plan is long term hold. Hopefully several properties within the next 5-10 years. I look at it the same way, I’m in it for the long run so I’d be ok with not rolling in the cash the first few years. I figure as long as someone else is paying the expenses through rent that’s just money being put into my investment by someone else and that isn’t coming from my pocket. The cash flow will be an added bonus as the mortgage goes down. Not sure if that’s the best way to look at it as I’m new this but it’s  my mentality until I learn otherwise. 

Amy - I also find many people in the 55+ community are on social security or a fixed income. So raising rent over time might also be more difficult