All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Sulka

We use Zillow and apartments.com. We also have large hospital nearby so we solicit with their HR folks. That has been the best source but low volume. If you have a big company, prison, school board etc hit them up! As a result of covid we upped all our minimums,income min 3.5x rent. 

@Benjamin Sulka. The best way to find a reliable tenant is to invest in reliable areas and have a good product

If your unit is In great shape and you are in a good area good tenants will find you if you market the property on a few sites.

Quote from @Benjamin Sulka:

I plan to buy a multifamily home (likely a duplex but it depends on what kind of deal I can find) in the summer of 2023.

You have a year. Read some books and you'll gain 80% of the knowledge you need. Then listen to podcasts, read blogs, and interact on the forums.

Do yourself a favor: buy "Every Landlord's Legal Guide" by NOLO. Written by attorney investors, it's full of practical advice pertaining to management of investment property, has sample forms that can be edited, and - most importantly - they tell you what your primary state laws are and where you can read them. It's updated every year and is the best $40 you'll spend as a Landlord. There is one book for 49 states and a separate book for California.

@Benjamin Sulka

You really should just find and talk to a good lender...

By definition the conventional loan's PMI will be cheaper assuming you qualify. if you don't qualify, that means the private market won't consider you a good risk anyway so the PMI will be too expensive. So, the Gov't steps in and says "we'll take that risk" and so the MI on the FHA loan will be higher. On a multifamily, the ltv increases until its 75% ltv as I recall even if its owner-occupied. Basically, this is the one time where a FHA has an advantage of being much higher ltv.

Also, I don't understand you first question. You do realize that in a single family a conventional loan can go as high as 95% ltv? very close to the FHA 96.5% ltv... Both loans are owner-occupied. Only the "investment" conventional loan is non-owner-occupied, but requires 80% ltv..

Good luck.

Hi @Benjamin Sulka!

A very good question indeed. Just edited the post to clarify. It is a virtual mastermind and I intend for it to be ongoing. A lot of people have questions so I hope that this can be a positive and constructive resource for us all to build community, understand it really means to win here, get to know who's who and how to do things on as we move through the process of investing in Cleveland.

invest and work on paying off the student loan debt. house hacking is a great way to get started.