All Forum Posts by: Ben Volkman

Thank you for the information, @Harjeet Bhatti

I was thinking the same thing, @Kenneth McKeown and thank you for the referral to @Tyler Hodgson.  You guys all were very helpful and confirmed what I had been hearing for years.  New lender it is!!

Dallas/DFW - I was speaking with my broker and she only had 1 lender who would do an FHA on a triplex (trying to do owner - occupied house hack). The lender said that in order to qualify for FHA the 2 non-owner occupied units need to cover the full mortgage payment in order to be approved for FHA 3.5% down program-- True or False?

I've never heard this in 3 years of podcasting and reading forums so it was a surprise to me.  If anyone knows, its the BP community!  

@Jorrin Crow Another option to consider is a USDA rural loan, "100% financing" according to the signs I drive by every day.  We live out in Richmond/Rosenberg area of Houston near Walnut Creek subdivision.  Now, these houses I'm specifically referring to run about 230k and are brand new so no flip required and the monthly payment would eat any potential to save money but that's not the point.  

You may be able to find a pocket of rural land that offers a house worth house hacking where you don't have to put hardly anything down.  Worth looking into more as I don't know all the specifics on this program

What do you guys see as a general price point for foundations? I was looking at a house with foundation issues (pier and beam) and spoke with several companies. The general consensus was that for a 3/2 or 4/2 SFR home, 8k was fairly common while anything pushing 15-20k was not very common.

The house I was interested in had a bid for 7500 but also 18k, so I'd be curious where the difference was.  This was on a pier and beam house at 2300 sq ft.

@Mark Sewell I have been seeing that same trend. I haven't looked into the numbers for those specific units, but whenever I would look at condos in the past, the HOA tended to eat up would be cash flow, especially when buying only 1 unit.

Like you said, it's working for someone so I'll be curious to hear some others input.

Thanks everyone for your input, I didn't expect this many responses but very grateful for your wisdom!  I will keep it in a money market account and have some patience.  As I previously stated, I have plenty of overtime and a side job to increase those funds hopefully to reach my goals within the next 12-15 months

@Caleb Heimsoth  Likely I will add to this account for 1 year at about 3-4k per month until I reach the 50k mark.  At that point, I will continue deal hunting until I see something I like.  But if I can't find a deal, then it will sit until I'm ready to use it.

@Kevin Coggins Thanks for the input! That's a fantastic idea, we have a guy in my neighborhood who currently does that and it seems he does quite well.  My current job is quite busy with plenty of overtime and even a side gig after work already so my time commitment is limited.  Look to put it somewhere, let it grow and wait.

@Paul 

@Paul Allen I'd say I'm fairly risk tolerant.  I still don't know what I don't know but I'm definitely not afraid to fail.  I'd risk 33% chance to be down 10% for a 66% chance to be up 12%.   Maybe Maybe 25/75% depending on the investment and where I thought the market was going.  After all, I can't take it with me.

@Lynn McGeein Thats another great option I hadn't thought of, I'll definitely be looking into that to check on rates, thanks!

Hey guys, I'm currently saving up for my first real estate purchase and looking for ways to expedite that process.  Currently, we are putting our money into a basic savings account at 1.45% interest.   Debating putting those funds into a mutual fund account and let them climb at a higher rate.  This will come with a tax bill when we do decide to withdraw the funds but it beats 1.45%

Is that a smart idea or are there better ways to get to my goals?

 Thanks in advance!

@Troy Iversen My wife and I recently went through our first home purchase and we debated the same thing. We ended up finding a 30 year mortgage with 10% down and no PMI (I wouldn't have done 10% down with PMI). This allowed us to save half our down payment for student loans, while we keep getting educated for investing in the future.

The 15 year note was tempting for the quicker pay off (dave ramsey thought process) and 30 years gives us more flexibility to decide what we want to do as we begin our family and allows us to pay offs loans or in your case invest earlier.   0.02

@Jonathan Halverson I have similarly thought the same thing as the OP about getting my license down the line. I have a W-2 job already so not looking to make a career change. I would only want the license to have access to MLS, to show myself properties and get access to rent rolls, etc and not inconvenience my agent to drive across Houston for something I may or may not purchase.

In order to achieve those things, do you still have to put your license with a brokerage?   If yes, are the brokerages ok just having a licensee under them who has no intention to buy or sell houses for commissions since it would be simply for purchasing investments?