All Forum Posts by: Christopher Cole

Thanks everyone. I don't need to get locking mailboxes. Just regular ones.

It sounds like the consensus is to just put up a second mailbox on the street and label them as A and B. No notification necessary. That sounds pretty easy.

I'm closing on a house that used to be a single family, but was converted to be a duplex. There is still only 1 mailbox, however.  It seems previously all mail went to the same box, and then the tenants split it among themselves.

I'd like to add a second mailbox and have them be Unit A and Unit B or something like that. There doesn't seem to be much information about how to do this with USPS though. Does anyone have experience with this?

I'm not expert by any means on flipping, but I know a 3/2 house is considered a "bread and butter" house.  If you tear down the wall, enlarge bedrooms/closets, AND build a bathroom, I'm guessing it will sell easier.

Navy Federal Credit Union will go down to 10k I believe.

I just got done calling about 12 places to find out their rates and practices, both national and local places.  I concur with @Mike D'Arrigo , you'll be paying 25% down.

Of all the places I called, Bank of America and Sun Trust banks had the best rates.  It surprised me. I also have had good luck with Zillow's mortgage rate finding feature.

There are several podcast apps in Android. Personally I like BeyondPod.  That's how I've listened to all of the BiggerPockets podcasts.  No problems at all.

I have used Lending Club, and I don't like them so much. True, you can maintain returns at 10% - but it can be hard to actually buy into loans (they frequently get canceled), and it isn't very easy to cash out (sometimes you have to sell your note for a discount, and it takes time as well).  Plus if you actually read their legalese documents, there is a lot of CYA saying they can basically disappear and/or go bankrupt and you lose everything.

What I do is direct deposit a certain % of every paycheck into an investor account (and the rest into my normal checking).  Then that investor account automatically buys an index fund as you mentioned. I used Charles Schwab, but I'm sure most investor accounts can do something similar. You'll still get pretty good returns and you'll be much more liquid, and this overall strategy makes me a lot less nervous than Lending Club.

I have heard you might be able to get some portfolio lenders to do an immediate cash out. I've called a few credit unions in my area though, and all want at least 6 months. Some won't even do cash out on an investment home.

Similarly, the lowest I've gotten is 20%.  Most 25%, and some 30%.  I've never heard 15% on an investment property from the banks I have talked to.

Would you really be getting the 8k "in hand"?  Or would it just be rolled into the principal balance on your loan?  That could make a difference in how you could use it.

I just recently went through this myself.  Here's similar logic to what I did:

$20 extra will mean $7200 over the life of the loan.

Also, $20 extra for $2400 means you break even at 10 years.  It's worth it if 1) You think you might refinance for something lower in the next 10 years, or 2) You can make that $2400 be > $7200 in the next 30 years.

Personally, I like to stick with whatever loan doesn't cost (or give) me points either way.