All Forum Posts by: Blair Knowles

@Martha Nowlan is awesome and hustles like no other! 

@Megan Phillips I'll be there! Thanks for organizing. Sounds fun. @Chelsea Rublee 

@Megan Phillips -- oh no!!! You have put in so much work an time. What a bummer. 

@Ben Granja- I would love to get coffee sometime! Where is your duplex?

@Mona Arthur I am a Realtor and would suggest that you add a supplemental heat unit (Monitor heater, gas or propane fireplace, pellet stove) this way you can advertise more than one type of heat without replacing the entire heating system. 

@Shane Brown lenders often tell me that credit pulls for pre approvals don't hit your credit that hard. I don't know too too much about it because it's a lender question definitely over a Realtor question. The lender I talked to about it told me that when you shop for a car the dealership will send your request for credit to a bunch of different lenders so you will get a bunch of pulls where as when you shop for a home the lender is only pulling once. My experience is that it doesn't hit my credit much/hard. Hope this helps. I'd ask a lender. You will definitely have to pull credit again to close but one or two pulls every 5 months doesn't hit your credit very hard as far as I know. 

@Peter Amour --- I'll check the next one out. I'm glad to hear it wasn't sales-y. That was my fear. 

@Samantha Hiscock is correct. The FHA paperwork only says you must live in the property for a year. Ha and @Samantha Hiscock thanks for the vote of confidence! My first duplex was purchased as an owner occupied duplex and I moved out after a year with no repercussions. That's a good question. I'm not surprised that your agent didn't know. It's a very specialized question that won't come up in most transactions and an agent likely wouldn't know unless they had an FHA loan themselves. 

@Megan Phillips my questions would be how much work and how rural? (Fairfield? St. Albans Town? East Fiarfield?  Swanton?)  

And then my next question is ---are you long term investing for cash flow or appreciation or both? Will you resell? How soon? It's hard to know the answers to all of these questions (especially when you are just starting your investment portfolio). The more rural the less appreciation (typically). The more rural the harder to resell quickly (typically).  

That said, with no other information, I would say go for the one that needs less work. As a newbie, you always underestimate and undervalue how much work will be and how much time it will take and it can drain you especially since you have a full-time job. Nothing turns you off of investing and wears you down faster than a property that sucks all your money and time. The majority of multi-families that I sell are folks that bought one property, never developed systems for maintenance or vetting/managing renters, got sick of the property (It became a headache rather than a money stream) gave up and sold. I call them the "One-offers". If you buy a first property that needs less maintenance you will be setting yourself up for a better chance and not becoming a "one offer" ;-) And I want that because we need more girl investors! :) 

Last but not least- FHA is actually pretty picky about what properties they will finance. If your property that "needs work" is in really rough shape you could run into issues when your bank sends an appraiser out to the property. For example, I had some single family purchasers use an FHA loan (against my recommendation). The house they purchased needed paint- the paint on the siding was peeling. The FHA appraiser flagged the chipping paint and said the entire house had to be painted in order for the bank to lend the money. The seller was unwilling/unable to paint the house. My buyers ended up painting the entire house (A home they didn't own yet-- logistical nightmare) in order to make the deal go through. Yikes!

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Hey all-- In talking with several lenders daily for my clients I wanted to share a cool loan program specific to Burlington Vermont. NBT bank has a portfolio loan called "Home in the City" that they offer to several cities across America. Burlington Vermont is one of them- through home in the city you can buy a duplex with 5% down and NOT PAY PMI on the loan EVER. This is far more exciting than the next best option and usual choice of owner occupiers of a first time duplex purchase--(FHA with 3.5% down and PMI for the LIFE OF THE LOAN). Shudder. 

My first property was bought in Burlington with FHA. If I had know about Home in the City I would have saved thousands (they don't do refinances-- trust me I asked)

I hope I can help one of you save thousands! I've worked with Christie Mitchell at NBT in downtown Burlington for my clients. She is great. Please feel free to tell her I sent you in her direction. 

@Jenny McClary -- What part of Southern Vermont?  Brenda Jones with KW Vermont is a great agent in the Bennington area. She may not want to spend her nights and weekends driving around with investors-- she has been in the business a long time (let's face it we aren't a cushy commission slam dunk) but if you tell her I sent you her way she will definitely give you an industry insider's opinion of who to work with.