All Forum Posts by: Elise Marquette

Do you have a specific area of Tampa that you're looking to focus on? EXP realty might be a good bet- It's all virtual and I believe that you pay the broker fees per transaction rather than monthly fees

Hey Mike, I'm in the Tampa Bay area as well. Definitely would recommend Lakeland- there's a lot of good renters there with the Amazon warehouse, GEICO, and other big corporations like that in the area who pay their employees well enough to afford a decent rent. My parents live there as well and absolutely love it. Polk county taxes are super cheap too, so it's very affordable

Where are you looking in Orlando? It varies widely. Winter Park houses are a lot more expensive that Kissimee houses. The problem with Orlando in general is that it is such a service based economy due to the tourism and service industry. Since so many people work in those industries and don't make a whole lot of money doing so, there isn't as much demand for higher priced houses. However, that may mean there's room to cash flow in the $800/mo rent range or AirBnB. Personally, seasonal income worries me but you may have some luck picking something up in Kissimee area and renting it out to a Disney employee

@Rich Makijew it depends what you want to do. You can look at doing an interest rate reduction refinance or possibly shortening your mortgage or taking cash out of the house to buy more properties/do home improvements/take a vacation

@Gitit Hefetz and how many units?

@Gitit Hefetz is this owner occupied or an investment property?

@Val Ault you can get better interest rates by putting more down. The more you put down, the more skin you have in the game, which makes it a safer bet for lenders. If you put 20-25% down on a non owner occupied multi, then you can avoid PMI. However for FHA, you will have mortgage insurance for the life of the loan, no matter how much you put down. Additionally, the more you put down, the smaller your loan amount is, which will lessen you debt to income ratio when qualifying for a mortgage. A lower debt to income ratio usually gets you better rates.

Where in Orlando? I used to live out there and was always curious about investing in that area. 

Depends on the loan amount and your cash flow. If the monthly payment after the cash out refi doesn't cash flow at a 15 year mortgage, then probably should consider a 30 year but if there's cash flow at the 15 year mortgage at the full LTV, then maybe stick with that. Have you spoken with a lender who can look at your debt to income ratio yet?

Yes, you must live in the property. Additionally, if you get found out for mortgage fraud, that could make the lender who issued the loan to you look really bad to the regulatory agencies which could negatively impact their career