All Forum Posts by: Dan Smith

Hey @Liane Cochrane - It's definitely a good idea to get estoppel agreements from each of the tenants.  I passed on doing this with my first purchase, as the owner actually didn't want anyone interacting with the tenants.  The estoppel agreement states what is the tenant's property vs what is part of the house, among other important pieces of information, that should be reflected in the lease.  This sounds small, but I had tenants literally remove mini blinds, trying to say that they were there's.  We replaced them with much nicer stuff anyway, but with an estoppel agreement, we would have had an easier time dealing with the issue as it would have been a non-starter.  For a post on these, look here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/06/1...

Hey Taylor,

I'm also invested in Haverhill, we have a 3-family in Bradford that we purchased in Dec 2015. Depending on the equity that you have in the house, you likely wouldn't be able to get a HELOC until you have 20%. If I'm reading that you purchased the home with 3.5% down, then you're certainly not going to meet that bar.

I think an important question to ask is what you're trying to do with the money.  When we bought our house, we wanted to do some serious renovations to the property, so we went to our bank and started a Personal Line of Credit (PLoC) for $25k.  This was something that anyone could do, we just had to qualify for it, similar to a credit card.  The difference with a PLoC is that it isn't using your house as collateral and the interest rate is likely higher than what you would get with a HELoC.

Looking at the equity that I have in our first house, even almost three years later, we still don't have the equity required to create a HELoC based on that property. 

If you're asking about staying in the property a year before trying to get another FHA loan on a second property, that's the minimum that a mortgage company is supposed to make you wait, and even then you would need to have a good reason to be moving so soon, while keeping the first property (sounds harder than it is from what I've heard).

If you provide more specifics about what you're hoping to do in the near future/long term, I could help think a little more about next steps for you, but in the current context, it wouldn't hurt to make sure everything is working well with your current property and continue to build up your savings.

-Dan

Hey @Manuel Fontan!

Welcome to BP:)  I got my start with a house hack in Haverhill, MA with a 3-family property.  I'd be happy to connect and answer any questions you might have about that process:)  Since purchasing that property three years ago, I've actually moved across the company to CA, but still manage our MA investment myself.  Now-a-days I stay relevant on real estate investing through reading BP posts, writing personal blog posts about my experiences with real estate, and chatting with other investors while we save for our next opportunity.

I look forward to seeing more of you around here,

Dan

@Christopher C. Evans - Welcome to BP :)  I would second the thought of not stretching yourself too thin.  When I bought my first 3-fam, I was able to buy something decent in a decent neighborhood of Haverhill as well, certainly below the budget that we could have made.  With that I was able to give it all new windows, renovations to two of the units, and new heating/hot water systems to the whole house.  

I likely built a ton of equity into the house with that and it's also allowed me to have plenty of cashflow as the house hasn't needed a ton of work since then, (considering it was all addressed in my reno's).

Literally a month before I had the heating systems scheduled to be replaced, one of them died (during Winter nonetheless).  Luckily we were able to push the contractors time frame up and get them all replaced, but I don't know what I would have done if that work needed to be done and all of my money was tied up in my mortgage.

Welcome @Corey C.! I'm originally from the Haverhill, MA area where I still have investments, but I have since moved to Los Angeles, CA.  BiggerPockets is definitely the place to be with this, make sure you take in a lot of the podcasts and books that they have here!

I currently own a 3-fam in Haverhill.  It is in the Bradford neighborhood which is perceived to be a higher tier of Haverhill.  I like it a lot and I plan to continue to invest in Haverhill.  Much like Chris mentioned, Haverhill is investing heavily in their downtown area and has been growing steadily.  

That being said, there are parts of Haverhill that I definitely wouldn't go near (the lower ave's being an example).  I've decided at this point that Bradford is where I'm most comfortable for now, but I can see myself branching out into other parts of Haverhill in the future.

I'm happy provide more specifics if you're looking for them.

@Allen Winston Cook - Can you confirm the exact address for the event please?

Hey there Eddy,

Welcome to the forum!!

I'm right in the Bradford neighborhood of Haverhill.  Let me know if you want to get together to talk shop.  I'm always happy to meet other investors in the area:)

Welcome to the forum @Daniel Ortiz - I'm right over in the Bradford section of Haverhill.  I'd love to connect and meet up.  Always happy to talk with local investors!  We just have one 3-fam right now, but hope to buy another in 2018.

Guys!! I want to meet up too, I'm right in Bradford, (@Matthew Ortins and I spoke before, but never ended up getting together!)

I'm free weekdays after 5:30 or weekends whenever!

@Timothy Woodland - Welcome to the forum, which house did you purchase?  I'd love to know more details, we bought our first 3-fam in Dec 2015.  As far as insurance goes, I would recommend speaking with an insurance broker or two to figure out the best option.  I am currently insured through Arbella Insurance.  It's been good so far, but I also haven't had to use it, luckily.