All Forum Posts by: Michael R.

I'm not faced with your problems yet - but the podcast section may offer some insight until other more experienced members reply.

I hope that helps. 

@James Green Jr Welcome to BP!  I too have begun to invest with my family and it has brought us closer together.  Congratulations and here is to your success!

Setup some key word alerts and hit the podcast section.  I am on #50.

All the best.

@John Yanko something else I learned about and am asking about is brick sealers.  I posted about it here.

I hope that helps.

If you search BP for Seller Financing there is a ton of information.  It was covered in podcast 13 but also may be a good topic for an #AskBP Podcast. 

Basically if you own the house, you can structure payment to the purchaser any way you both agree on. 

I hope that helps.

 I am having my Virginia Town home tuck pointed.  Note that my foundation is good -- but I can speak to tuck pointing.  Basically what is happening for my house is that I have cracks similar to the ones you are looking at.  I just had the contractor here this morning and got a quote.

There are two types of Tuck Pointing -- Full or partial.  So what he told me they will do - is a partial (around the windows where the grout has separated from the brick & a major crack I have down a wall) where they will grind out mortar and replace it.  For my crack they will do the same; however, where bricks are cracked and they do not need replacing - they will grind the brick down and put in a mortar joint.  So think of a cracked brick being made into two smaller bricks with a mortar joint to strengthen.  

Note that the quote took less than 30 min and was free.  So if you can make some time, it may help you with estimates.

I hope that helps.  

I am having some brick re-pointing quotes done for my town house in Virginia and a water repellent treatment was added to one of my quotes.  It was recommended that every 10 years of so this treatment be done.  The product in this case is marketed as 100% breathable - allowing moisture to escape.

Recently, on my NY (Rochester area) home we had some mason work done on the brick portion of that house.  When my father asked the mason that did the work about the water repellent treatment -- the mason advised against it.  The mason had mentioned that because of the freeze / thaw cycles in NYS and the sealants ability to seal and trap moisture, that he has done significant repair work.  The mason in NY did say that if there were a breathable product that it may work out.  But from that statement I took it to mean that he was not familiar with the product that was being offered to me.  

I am wondering if anyone has any experience for feedback for sealing brick exteriors with a 100% breathable product.  In a climates such as the Mid-Atlantic or regions that experience dramatic freeze / thaw seasons.

Thanks.

Update:  I have contacted three companies for quotes.  I will post the quotes and company names once I get all three have been presented. 

Well done - thank you for sharing.  

These assumptions are correct.

So, the advice in my situation would be to hold off on buying investment properties until I secure my own personal home purchase/mortgage?? That way I don't have to worry about a higher debt-to-income ratio that would potentially deny me a mortgage in the amount I may need for my personal home property??

This really depends on what your goals are.  Meaning both properties (Primary residence and investment) are investment vehicles to get you somewhere long term.  You will always need a place to live.  How you structure your debt today will impact your flexibility tomorrow. 

There are a couple of different ways you could approach this -- one is buy your primary res and ensure your income covers that and then seek out investments.  Or buy an investment property and rely on the cash flow from that property to support your primary residence.  Each approach carries with it a different level of risk - and with any other investment your risk tolerance is what is the biggest factor.  You want to avoid over leveraging yourself.

Another way to look at this is - if you could bring someone else in on your  purchases (Spouse or family member) then which one would it make sense for them to come in on?  Sure you may have to split the revenues at the end of the year with them, but 50% of a deal is better than 100% of nothing.  

So come up with where you want to be in 3 and 5 years - then work backwards on how you want to get there in some sort of a plan.

I hope that helps.

 Thank you for following up @Darren.  No easy way - we will just have to get those solid processes in place.  This thread is like a crash course.  

All the best,

Mike