All Forum Posts by: Charles Brumfiel

Welcome to Bigger Pockets! Make sure to check out the podcast and blogs along the way. They will teach you a ton and are very inspiring. I wish you success in accomplishing your dreams. 

@Account Closed

The FHA fee on my itemized worksheet was $1688 so I saved paying that by going conventional. Between just the down payment and the FHA fee I saved $2141.50 in upfront costs.

No problem Dwayne, I hope you get an awesome deal and an awesome loan!

Cheers!

@Account Closed

Based on my purchase price of $90,700

Conventional 3% = $2,721

FHA 3.5% = $3,174.50

So in the down payment I saved $453.50

The real benefit was that I saved several thousands in fees and PMI.
I can lookup how much I saved in fees when I get home and I'll let you know.

@Account Closed

Ask your lender if you qualify for a Conventional loan. I was pre-qualified and ready to go with a FHA loan at 3.5% down but I asked my lender if there was any other options because I didn't like all of the upfront FHA fees. My lender said there was a conventional loan at 3% down with a slightly higher interest rate, but you need a certain credit score to qualify. She ran my credit and I qualified. I paid a lower down payment, had no upfront FHA fees, will only have PMI until 78%LTV, and my interest rate is only 0.25% higher than FHA. I saved many thousands of dollars upfront and throughout just by asking about other options.

If you have decent credit see if you qualify for a low money down conventional loan. 

Best of luck to you!

Welcom to BP!

I'm a newbie from Aurora too! 
I wish you the best of luck!

I especially like the podcasts, live webinars, forums, and the blogs here (just about everything on BP, haha). Tons of awesome information, success stories, and lessons from others mistakes and bad luck. Enjoy and smooth sailing neighbor! 

Sounds cool, I'll see if I can make it after work!

@Mark Nolan Thank you, I will check out the blogs too.

@Anson Young Thank you, I'm glad to have your perspective on my deal and happy I got a good one for my first! I would love to check out the BP Denver meetup! Keep me posted.

@Bill S. Thank you, mention looks like its working now thanks to your advice, :)
I appreciate your perspective as well and glad I got a good deal. I will look into the refi in a year. That'll be nice to not pay PMI and reduce my payment. Yea $1000/mo is a safe estimate and a nice round number. If the market keeps going up I may be able to get more by the time I do decide to rent but we'll see what happens. When I rent I may do the property management myself and therefore save some money to add to my cash-flow. It'll be good experience too. I appreciate your advice. I learn something new everyday.

@Brent Paul Thanks again, I mentioned you earlier and it failed but got it working now thanks to Bill.

I love BP! I'm excited to be a part of this awesome community! Thank you all!

 I have recently come across this site https://cozy.co/for-landlords/collect-rent-online

Its called Cozy and all of their landlord services are free including direct deposit. They make their money on renters when they pay Cozy for credit checks to be sent to you. I have not used it yet but it looks pretty cool. Anyone else use Cozy?

Hi, @Brent Paul 

Thanks for welcoming me to BP and thanks for the advice about the 10% PM, maintenance, and vacancies. I'll keep that in mind. Yes we currently have a HOA. Dues are about $181/mo. The unit next door was recently rented for $950. I saw pictures and it doesn't look as nice as my unit. They have carpet floors and original counter-tops. I have wood laminate floors, granite counter-tops, and a remodeled bathroom. I'm thinking I may be able to get an extra $100/mo, hopefully.

So if I do rent it for $1050/mo:
10% = $105 x 3 = $315 + $181 HOA = $496.....We'll just call it $500

That leaves me with $550/mo - $440/mo Mortgage + Insurance = $110 Cashflow.

Did I miss anything else? Hopefully I will do 1 year leases and raise my rates along with HOA as to not affect my cash-flow. No amenities here, just landscaping and external repairs so hopefully HOA rates won't increase a lot. Thanks again!

Hello BP,

I am a private pilot and love to fly! Look at my pic. I recently finished my college classes, landed a job in January of this year, and am about to close on my first property. I stumbled upon BP while in the process of purchasing this property. Now I am hooked on the prospect of Real Estate Investing! I can't wait to own more properties and get more involved in the world of real estate investing. My goals are to save for retirement and build enough wealth to own my own small plane. I would also like to travel the world. I enjoy my job so my strategy is going to be buy & holds. 

Let me tell you a little about the property I am buying and maybe you guys can tell me if I did alright. It's a 2BD/1BA Townhouse with a 1 space shared garage that I have been renting from the owner for the last year. He decided to sell and I didn't really want to move because rent and property values shot up like crazy during the last couple of years. I had a smoking deal on rent too. $600/mo and he could have easily charged us $900+. Zillow's Zestimate on the property was $96,500 and that's what my landlord said he'd sell it for. However, since I would save him time and money (some repairs, replacing carpets, painting, real estate agent, ect) he would sell it to me for $90,700. I agreed to the price and signed the contract. Talking to a bunch of coworkers who just bought houses recently, they said the Colorado market is so hot that nobody is getting property at listing price. Properties are getting gobbled up within a couple of days on the market. Some people are paying up to $20,000 additional and some are cash offers. My appraisal came in the other day and it appraised for $95,000. This means I'll have some equity to start. Right now this is going to be my primary residence but eventually I want rent it out. I think I got a smoking deal considering the hot market. What do you guys think?