All Forum Posts by: Baylus D. Nicholson

Good to see you made it here! Bigger Pockets is full of real estate professionals and investors willing to help each other out. I wish you the best of luck with your new endeavors. If you ever happen to find your self in the upstate of South Carolina looking to invest I'd love to meet with you to see if we . Like I said. I wish you the best of luck. 

Baylus D. Nicholson 

Hi and welcome to the BP community!  My wife and I live right outside of Greenville.  We've also seen the real estate heating up in the area.  If you ever need any help or have an questions, feel free to contact me.

-Drew

Good morning,

   Borrowing money is a good way to obtain properties faster than you normally would be able to. yes you would have to pay a mortgage on the property but if the property is right, it can still cash flow for you even though it is financed. Just check, double check, and then triple check your numbers when doing this. the last thing I would want is for you to get in trouble.

   Since you already have one rental you could really ask a bank you give you a line of credit on it and use that line to help purchase new rentals. (as long as there is equity in the property you own)

If you have a house and you are willing to sell it. Do it, and use the cash from it to buy a Duplex or Triplex and live in one unit and rent out the other. It is a really good way to cut your personal living expense while also obtaining more rentals at the same time. If you rent, save some money for a down payment on a duplex/triplex (you can normally get one for 3.5% down with an FHA loan) then get the heck out of there and stop paying rent.

Good luck and I hope things work out well for you.

Hey, Mr. Konduri

I believe multi-family building are the best way to go as far as real estate investing. Over all they are perfect for me and my goals as far as cash flow and increasing value. some typical questing I want answered are;

1. 1. What are the current rents per unit? (Ask your self if the units are over/under priced for the market.)
2. 2. What are the vacancy rates? (A really high vacancy rate could indicate a problem, you could probably fix to increase the over all value of the building . A low vacancy rate can mean good cash flow.)
3. 3. Are the units separately metered? (If they are GOOD! you can pass along the cost of utilities to the tenants. If not, I would see if it would be possible to get that done, other wise it will cause headaches with billing tenants.)
4. 4. Could you possibly live in one of the units? (The best way to get bang for your buck is to house hack a property. judging by the fact this is your first investment property, this is a great way to get financing with an FHA loan with 3.5% down, and to cut out most if not all of your living expenses.)
5. 5. Ask tenants if they experience any problems with how the property is managed. (Fix whatever problems they have. If you can make your tenants feel more valued, they happier they will be, the longer they will stay, and the more rent you can collect.)

I hope things work out well for you on Sunday. If things do work out be sure to post a success story because I know I would love to hear it. Good luck!

 good to know, thank you for the tip.

 Thank you so much for the tips. I am definitely going ask the current tenants how their current living situation is and be respectful to them in understanding the changes for them as well.

Its also good to know major problems can be caught before closing and we can address them before we get caught up in something we cant handle yet. 

Thank you so much.

Welcome to BP! I am from the upstate of South Carolina and visit your area very often. if you ever find yourself down near the Clemson area let me know. we can met for coffee and discuss ideas and plans.  

I am putting a deal together where I will be house hacking in the upstate of South Carolina. I am absolutely ready to dive into being a landlord and facing all the problems that come along with it, however I have no idea what kind of problems I will be going up against.

So I'm asking BP;

-what kind of major problems have you guys run into with your house hacks?

-what have you done to prevent the problems from happening again, or ever accruing  the first place?  

-I plan on screening my potential tenants very well using the BP guild to screening, but would you add anything on top of the BP guild that my not have been mentioned in the book?

Thank you so much for your help.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Good Day BP.

I have been trying to buy my first duplex for about a year now. my plans are to house hack it for 2 years or so then move on to a new one and then rent them both, But one thing is holding me back.BANKS! Some general info about me is my credit score is above 700, the only debts I have against me are my car and one credit card. here is any approximant look of my finances.

Income - $1,700/month

Debts - $309/month

Net - $1,391/month

I feel that I would be able to easily purchase a nice duplex in my area for about $75,000-$100,000 or $750/month in a mortgage. I have asked my local banks multiple times why they have turned me down, but non of them can give me a straight answer.

So I'm turned to you guys here at BP for advice. What can I do to assure banks that I am not a huge risk? If any of you have any tips or tricks to help me out I would really appreciate it.

Thank You.