All Forum Posts by: Craig Curelop

@Aaron Araujo- You have a good problem! Congrats for putting yourself in that position. 

It sounds like you are in between steps 3 and 4 of the BRRRR strategy (Buy, Rent, Rehab, [ you are here] Refinance, Repeat). If you're using this strategy, naturally I would say to finish it off and refinance and take the additional $100 in cash flow! $400-$500 is very good cash flow for a 3plex.

There are a lot of unknowns here. The two largest that I would like to know is what your monthly savings rate is and what is your living situation like? Do you have a family/kids? If you have a monthly savings rate of $1,500+ and do not have a family to support, I would suggest keeping the refinanced house and purchasing a house hack while living in it. You can't beat the cash on cash returns of house hacking. 

If you do not plan to live there and you were to do the 1031 exchange, I can't imagine you will find anything better than what you have. With a non-owner occupied loan, you typically need to put 20%-25% down so you will just end up purchasing a property of similar value. Lots of work for not much of a difference in return. This assumes that you are purchasing in a similar location of course. 

@Matt Smith - I'm not sure of your age. Assuming you're in your 20's or 30's you do not need to worry about getting the BEST deal. Just get a deal that works. You never know when the best deal is going to come and you're going to be kicking yourself later for not taking action. 

It sounds like the deal you pitched works for you. Saving $500 on rent is the same thing as cash flowing $500. 

If you're willing to house hack your next property and do not mind moving around, I would think you will be able to purchase another one in much less than 5-7 years. Likely 1-2 years as  long as you are frugal and continue to sustain a solid savings rate. 

Hey @Attila M. - We are working on a video now that shows how to fill out the forms. 

@Joshua Goston - "good" and "bad" are all in the eyes of the investor. 

In terms of toughest to cash flow assuming conventional lending (which is what I think you mean), I would say that my top 2 cities would be Cleveland and Indianapolis. My bottom two would be San Francisco and New York City. 

Hope this gives you some sort of foundation in which you can conduct your research on. 

@Mitchell Smith - I agree with Jennifer. Your first step should definitely be to figure out the problem at the water treatment plant. 

Your tenants are clearly unhappy and the last thing you want should be upset tenants. You should think of your real estate investment as a business and your tenants are your customers. You need to make them happy. Until this problem is fixed, I would suggest either reimbursing part of their rent OR purchasing bottles of water for them. 

You can go to Costco and get a 40-pack of water for under $10. If you buy 4 or 5 of these, your tenants should be okay until the water treatment plant fixes their problems. 

@Ezekiel Cruz - Unfortunately, buying in NYC is out of the question for most people starting out. Even if you could come up with $140k-$200k down, you would have a loan of ~$600k-$800k. This would result in mortgage payments of around $5k. I'm not sure if rents would even cover your mortgage, nevermind budgeting for vacancies, repairs, and capex. 

If you're looking to get into real estate investing and looking to stay in NYC here are a few recommendations: 

- Invest out of state. David Greene wrote a book for BiggerPockets called "Long Distance Real Estate Investing." 

- Find partners who are willing to put more than 20% down. You will likely have to do some sort of value add here so you can refinance them out and give them their money back with a return. 

- AirBnb? I'm not sure of what the AirBnb laws are in NYC. However, if it is allowed, I would suggest trying to rent out various apartments in the City and then renting them out on AirBnb. The landlord gets his rent every month and you keep the difference. Be sure to let the landlord know that this is what you are planning to do. 

Hope this helps!

@Brandon Silvia - the largest problem with conventional lenders is that they are not flexible at all. They sell the majority of their loans to Fannie/Freddie so they need to adhere to very strict lending guidelines. 

For this reason, most lenders offer virtually the same products, but there are a few out there that are willing to get creative for you. Find these guys, treat them well, and keep them! 

Also - if you are a first time home buyer, make sure the lender will answer your seemingly naive questions without making you feel inferior. 

@Account Closed - Welcome to BiggerPockets! 

My strategy is to seek assets that provide passive income while dramatically reducing my cost of living. For that reason, I am pursuing the house hacking strategy. Currently, I have my first house hack and am in the market for a second. I will continue this strategy for the next 3-4 years until I have the liquidity to put down 25% on investment properties. 

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