All Forum Posts by: Griffin Malcolm

I did the same thing and closed about a year after graduation. I did a conventional loan and my bank looked at my full-time job for the past year and part-time jobs for the year prior to make up the 2 years of employment history. 

When I was researching lenders during college many of them said they could use my time in college as a substitute for employment. It all just depends on the lender. You shouldn't have a problem getting a loan though

Thank you both for the replies. @Kevin Sobilo I'm about to start reading How to Estimate Rehab Costs, so hopefully after that I can attempt to do my own estimates with confidence levels like you do.

@Kevin Paulk This is ideally what I want to work towards. I got in touch with two contractors yesterday and they each wanted $500 to walk the property and give an estimate. Might be a worthwhile investment for my education 

How do you guys actually go about getting bids from contractors for rehabs? Is it before you buy or after? Seems risky waiting until after the purchase when holding costs will start to pile up, but it also seems silly for the contractor to walk the property with you, write up a detailed scope of work and risk the buyer not actually completing the purchase. Do you pay a contractor money each time they walk a property before hand?

I'm comfortable analyzing a deal, I understand I'll need to get an LLC in order to get a short-term loan, and I know I'll need to find a lender for the refinance, but sourcing bids is what is currently hanging me up. Any feedback would be appreciated. Trying to get all my ducks in a row so I can actually look at some properties with intention.

Thank you for the detailed reply! I definitely intend to keep house hacking. I've been looking into BRRRRs since I don't hit one year in my primary residence / first house hack until May of 2024 and want to grow my portfolio before then potentially, but if the rates are still really high it might be best just to wait. I don't want to force anything. 

Thanks so much everyone! These are some clear action items for me to take. I looked into an LLC as well after David's comment and was surprised at how inexpensive it is to start one in NY.

I came across the NREIA tonight and was looking through some of the membership benefits. One of which was a discounted fee to use Privy, which says it "empowers investors with the best and most accurate MLS data to quickly analyze any deal with powerful comping algorithms. Our system automates the process of finding deeply discounted deals and off-market leads - based on what other investors are already having success with."

Is this a popular site / worth paying for? An NREIA membership also gives a discount for Foreclosure.com, which says it's best for finding distressed properties. Do people have success with these types of sites?

Thanks Erin. I suppose I should probably do what I did for my conventional loan on my house-hack - shop around with different institutions and find the best terms. 

Hard-Money is still a bit hazy to me, like, are these brick-and-mortar institutions where I can take a Saturday and drive around and collect information from them all? Or are they predominantly online and I just need to Google my way to terms from different companies 

Successfully completed my first house-hack / investment property this year (woohoo!) and am now educating myself on the BRRRR strategy after I've gotten my feet wet. My first property needed a new roof, water and sewer main, and extensive electrical work, so I feel pretty confident with those rockstars in my corner. My agent the first time around was great and I didn't have any issues with my lender, so I feel good about my team there as well.

The BRRRR process makes sense, and I'm ready to dive in, but I'm still hung up on the initial financing. I don't have enough equity for a HELOC, nor do I, or anybody I know, have a pile of cash to throw at a property. Hard-money seems like my only option. Is this correct? If so, do I get the loan before I find a deal, or put in an offer and then go to a hard-money lender? This seems risky, but it also seems risky to take out some monstrous 9% interest loan and have to sit on it for 2 months while deals fall through. Any advice?

Hardest for me was finding a multi-family that had big enough rooms for me to feel good giving to my friends in exchange for their hard-earned money. A lot of the older duplexes in my area have bedroom that are just so damn small. I would've felt bad sticking my friends in them.

The duplexes that did work out I was outbid every time. Eventually after 6 months I said F it and got a 5 bedroom single family with larger rooms. We're all happy in it and the mortgage is completely covered, so I'm happy on that front as well

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Schenectady, NY

Purchase price: $180,000
Cash invested: $9,000

House-Hacking this one. Doesn't flow any money to start but when I move out it will. Appraised for 230k. Got a home equity loan for 33k. Puts me at +17k equity to start which I'm happy with.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Wanted to begin my journey with a house-hack as it seemed like the lowest barrier to entry for a new investor

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

MLS. Went back and forth after discovering it needed repairs, so when I requested to be released from the contract the buyers offered to take another 30 grand off, so then I signed.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan with 5% down. Seller concessions of 5k to pay for all my closing costs (Trustco has really low closing costs).

How did you add value to the deal?

Because the property needed work and appraised for 50k more than I paid, I turned around and used a home equity loan for the repairs. I'm also in the process of painting everything and re-doing the hardwood floors, so hopefully all these things add value.

What was the outcome?

I don't cashflow right now, but I get to live with my friends for free which is great. Once I move out I can rent my room which will then let me cashflow. Currently have 17k equity in the home which hopefully will only increase.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Really pays to get a quality home inspection and get multiple quotes for repairs. $500 for a thorough inspection is still far cheaper than getting into the house and discovering tens of thousands of dollars in hidden repairs. Plus, what is discovered during due diligence can be used as leverage in the negotiations.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

J Squared Home Inspections and Peter Porcello of Chad Majewski Real Estate were both outstanding