All Forum Posts by: Isaac Pyle

@Rob Massopust Thank you! This is the exact kind of response I was looking for, lots of information. I am curious, you say that a MFH would be closer to 5% down.. if I were to pull off buying a SFH and adding an ADU, would that be a 3.5 or 5% down loan, assuming I was planning to use the 203k money to make the ADU? And would that then need to be rezoned as a MFH then? I am a bit unclear on these kinds of details. Thank you again!

Hey guys! A little bit of background, I am looking at my options for a bit down the line (I am in school now), and I am strongly considering a 203k FHA loan to finance a house-hack, so that I can relatively quickly build equity in the house and refinance as soon as possibly to get out of mortgage insurance. That being said, I have heard good and bad things about the 203k FHA, some saying that it is great because you can factor all of your repairs into the loan and pay down only 3.5% of that total cost, but others saying it can be a nightmare with a lot of setbacks dealing with contractors and other things. Has anyone used a 203k FHA before? How did it go for you? And if you haven't taken out a 203k FHA loan before, do you have any opinions about it for other reasons?

Thanks for reading!

@David Dachtera That's a very valid point. I love the way you put that "Lack of education costs". And you are right, I would be willing to bet a majority of the RE podcasts I have heard talk about mistakes they have made, and how they would have done it differently had they known what they were doing. The only thought running through my head now is that I am already paying thousands for college education, it is hard to justify paying more money for RE education when it is so easy to post on a forum like this and get connected with so many knowledgeable people. But point taken, I will reconsider my options. Thanks for the post!

@Paul Hillyard That is a great way to put it "The more you know, the less you need". I have definitely checked out Grahan Stephan, I will have to look into the others here as well. Thanks!!

@Will Armstrong thanks you for this!! I will be referencing these points in the future, this is an excellent list. Thanks for the reply!

@David Dachtera Wow, this is really great advice. I have a lot to learn about marketing myself to others, and about fund raising. This is definitely a push in the right direction for future research, thank you!

@Jaxton Holmes Great advice! I haven't looked into courses yet just because there is so much free information to be had still. Maybe down the line..

@Ryan Rabe Congrats! That's awesome that it is working out for you right now! I still have a lot to learn, but it is cool to know that other people my age are making it happen right now.

@Ivan Guillen Very true and encouraging. I will have to look into some more creative options!

@Jaron Walling Oh interesting, I have heard mostly good things about 203k FHA loans (is that the same as the 401k you mentioned?). I will have to do a lot more research into this, clearly I do not know too much about it yet. Thank you for the update!

@Michael Nilsen That's true, I should enjoy it a bit shouldn't I? Haha! 

@Account Closed That is a really cool life story! I'm happy it has worked out the way it has for you! In my market, a 3 bed 2 bath SFH in need of some work could easily go for $400k, so finding any kind of duplex or deal with more units would be somewhat out of reach.. but maybe that would work well on the second or third deal! And I love the advice about friends of family looking to do something for retirement, I will remember that, thanks!

@Thomas Weidner thanks Thomas! Very inspiring words. You are definitely right in the fact that I can make time, when I said I had little to no time I was referring to working part time, which would require many hours a day that is hard to commit to. But that doesn’t mean I have no free time at all, and I plan to use that time to learn more about real estate. Thanks again!

@Bill O'Donnell that’s a good idea! I may plan on looking into construction jobs over the summer, we will see how that turns out..