All Forum Posts by: Corby Goade

Why not do both? I love the idea of selling your house and moving to a place with a lower cost of living to get a jump start- you should check out the Boise, ID area. Low cost of living, relatively low entry point for investors and it's growing like crazy. Idaho is the fastest growing state in the US.

But I digress...you mention your financing your cars, plural. I don't know your financial situation, but cars and car loans will kill more real estate dreams than anything else. Cars loans kill cash flow. Cash flow that every underwriter will be analyzing to see if your DTI can afford another mortgage. My (unsolicited) advice would be to start with getting rid of any cars you owe money on, buy something reliable that will get the job done and start your investing career.

Best of luck!

No one here can tell you what's "best" for you. It totally depends on your personal goals, your experience, resources and willingness to work. Can you tell us more about those things, maybe we can give you better, more specific advice.

In a buyers market, banks are giving away 30 year mortgages for owner occupied and investment properties. Make sure you are asking banks the right questions and giving them honest answers. If you have good credit and find a good deal, a 30 year loan on an investment property should be easy to come by.

I love HELOCs, that is how I invest. The only downside, from my perspective, is that if you don't buy right and have sufficient cash reserves, you might lock up that money for a looonnnggg time, which is not good- you aren't liquid and interest rates are variable and out of your control. Beyond that, buy right, plan and work hard, you'll be fine.

I'd review your buying criteria with them and talk to them about how you expect to negotiate with sellers. See if the agent is on board for representing you in the way you want to work. If not, keep shopping.

Can you please clarify your question? Who should you speak to in regards to what, exactly?

If you have to ask, they probably aren't. Not to say they aren't a good agent, maybe not the right agent for you or for your goals. There aren't many agents that work with investors and that mindset is tough to convey to someone who works with owner occupied buyers, new clients all of the time. I'd go to an REI meetup and ask other people in your area who they work with. There's likely to be a few agent/investors there. It took me a long time to find an agent who gets it.

Cash talks in markets like this. Quick, aggressive offers with a quick expiration. I have just learned about using an escalation clause, which is my new best friend. I generally don't event try to negotiate price until after I get the house off of the market, it's the only way to get any leverage in negotiations. Good luck!

If you bought with 20% down and had 50% equity from the start, you'd have room. For instance, purchase price of $100k, supposedly $150K (50% equity) in value with a 20% down payment? If that is all true, you'd owe $80K on a $150K property, and that doesn't take in to account any debt buy down or appreciation. at 70% LTV, you could pull $25k out, which would give you $5k more than you put down in the first place. You'd get a 25% return on that cash almost immediately.

There are banks that will do a HELOC on a rental, but you have to shop around- don't give up, they are out there! Also, HELOC interest will STILL be deductible with the new tax law, but only if it's used for a business purpose, so there should be little to no effect for investors in that regard.