All Forum Posts by: Andrew S.

@Account Closed I suspect the reason why you don;t get many responses is that your question is not very clear. What is your situation? What exactly do you need? Cash for earnest money (to wholesale), cash for downpayment? A loan for the entire transaction?

Also depends on your personal situation. Do you have a job and decent credit? If so, try a bank, mortgage broker, etc.

@Brian R. Also keep in mind that it's hard to get HELOCs on rental property and you still have to qualify for HELOC based in part on your income. Finally, if you pay cash for your property, you will not get all of that back out with a HELOC or refi - only about 70% of assessed value.

@Andy Collins - are you sure about that? I have been told differently by my mortgage broker just yesterday. Does it depend on local/state situations?

@David V. - I'm interested in several of the questions you asked as well and I'm looking forward to the pros chiming in! @Steven Hamilton II : any thoughts?

There are probably hundreds of threads here on BP discussing this topic, and opinions vary, of course. Here is my take: as long as you diligently disclose your agent status upfront, the upsides outweigh the downsides. I'm seriously considering getting my own license just for direct MLS access and ability to check out properties without needing to rely on an other agent's schedule.

Fascinating and informative "potty talk"!

Back to oil vs gas heat: another point to bring into the mix: where is your oil tank? In the basement or underground? If underground, do you know what shape it is in? Is it leaking yet? I know oil heat is much more common up North than in my neck of the woods, but I'm quite allergic to it when the tanks are underground - to me, these are ticking time bombs with almost unlimited downside potential environmental and regulatory impact). In other words, I'd do my best to get rid of them, if I could.

@Dustan Marshall First of all, I'm impressed that you were able to find a bank willing to do a HELOC on rental property - that seems to be pretty unusual (most banks only do HELOCS on owner-occupied properties.

Anyway, usually a HEL is a fixed loan amount often at a fixed interest rate. A second mortgage - you close on the loan, get a check and start paying interest (and usually principal) just like on any other mortgage.

A HELOC is a line of credit. It comes at variable interest rates (typically prime lending rate plus same small percentage, so if the prime rate goes up, then your interest rate goes up. The big difference to HEL is that you only draw what oyu need and pay interest for what you took out. So, if your HELOC is for 50K and right now, you only need 15K for your rehab, then you just take out 15K and that's what you pay interest on. You can then pay down the balance (and lower interest payments) or draw more, as needed. You literally get a checkbook and can write checks for any expenses as they occur.

So, HEL: predictable terms, all cash comes at once, locked in interest rate, locked in payments

HELOC: variable interest rates, tap in as you need (flexibility), pay off - re-draw, as you wish

It comes down to what you need the cash for. If you have one big 50K rehab bill, then perhaps HEL is better but if you want to flexibility of locking in credit without paying interest from day one, go with HELOC.

@Angela Ruiz

You may try to connect with @Karen Rittenhouse here on BP

- she is in Greensboro and knows tons about REI and the Triad area. She has two really useful books too that you should check into.

Not really sure duping people into reading your pitch is a productive idea for mailers, but I'm pretty sure it's not on forum like this....it's pretty easy to get people to quit taking you serious. Then again, that may just be me.

@Johna Medeiros

- do you have any room to just compromise on say 1-2K off and be done with it? Sounds to me like the buyer is just using the report to squeeze as much as he can get, but he may settle for splitting the difference.

Additional inspections to "settle the validity of the first inspection" are fine but they cost you time and money without certainty that you will like the outcome. If the buyer skips out you'll likely have additional cost to re-market, hold, etc.

PS: Even if you are at the inspection, the inspector will still write what he wants - he is working for the buyer, not for you, so he may not be willing to discuss any of his findings with you at all.