All Forum Posts by: Jake Handler

This is awesome

Remember that when you take out a HELOC, and draw from it, it counts as "debt" to your DTI ratio. Might sound obvious but people often tend to forget this. So ask yourself (or a lender), can you take out a HELOC and still qualify for the next owner occupied purchase.

There are not a ton of 4 families outside the more urban areas of North Jersey.  Maybe one of those suit you, maybe not.  My house hacking journey began with a 2 bedroom condo and my investing journey evolved from there.  Great to aim for a 4 family but as you continue your process you might find that a lesser size property fits your lifestyle better, and that's okay too. 

For anyone that has been a buyer or seller of a seller finance property, what method of payment and tracking did you use for buyer to pay seller monthly?  I'm looking for the cleanest & most visible way to access payment history, see amortization schedule, tax documents, etc- much like bank softwares provide.  The typical rent collection sites are not what I'm looking for.

What does help you screen for a property mean and why would you need a "corporate" lease?

I am not sure where exactly this property is, but this is an example of why I prefer B class neighborhoods or better when looking for rental properties.  Many people I speak with initially gravitate towards the "cheaper" areas because "numbers are better."  Until we speak further and dive deeper into their "why."  

With the situation you're going through, your first thought was likely "I'll raise the rents to cover this."  That is also the first thought I would have.

If your property is in a B or better neighborhood, your tenants are way more likely to not blink at a $1,000/year rental increase.  If they do, then you can likely find another tenant for that amount fairly easily, as I would assume the entire town's taxes are up- so if someone really wanted to be in town, that price is the new normal.

If your taxes increased that substantially in a C neighborhood, your tenants would way more likely give push back for that type of increase- even though you're not being greedy, you're just imposing the same raise you were given.

Often the buyer who had the "well, the numbers are better" mentality is only looking at year 1.  It's like drafting a rookie QB and expecting to win the Super Bowl his rookie year.

Based on the tax increase, my assumption is you chose a great appreciating neighborhood and have a similar mentality to me.  You'll come out on top no doubt.

Is it listed with a realtor? On first look of that Zillow link it seems like it's not. You will get 10x the exposure listing on the MLS among plenty of other benefits going that route.

With the newer 5% down conventional loan for owner-occupied multifamily option, I generally advise people to start analyzing from there if they want to house hack a multifamily with minimal down. You don't need to refi to remove PMI if it's a conventional loan. Once you have enough equity you can go through the process of removal without refinancing. I've done it for two different properties and happy I didn't go FHA for that reason- although everyone's circumstances are different.

@Andrew Giunta I noticed you posted this over a year ago... were you able to make any progress on this? I own an HOA management company in Hoboken and it's led me down this thinking-path as well.

I am under contract on purchasing an off-market home, seller finance in North Jersey.  I am getting a 5% interest rate, 30 year amortization with no balloon, no prepayment penalty.

I am deciding the best way to fund the rehab.  The home is in semi-rough shape... liveable (barely), but certainly not rentable.  Although I'm confident I can fix and flip it, my plan is to keep it as a rental.

My dilemma is... where do I get the rehab funds? This home can use 200k of renovations. The seller is already in first position and in a perfect world I'm not refinancing out of those terms, and I'm not giving up equity to a money partner. A HELOC may be an option but I'm full time real estate (no W2) and have a couple properties and my DTI is relatively high. Perhaps a bank statement HELOC would work for me... still figuring that out.

Any other creative ways to get money for a rehab? And then ideas to pay it back? The ARV supports the juice, but I think either my "perfect world" has to be compromised, or a HELOC of some sort- if I can. Hopefully people smarter than me can chime in here for more creative ways to get rehab money, perhaps using the house as collateral in second position if possible.