All Forum Posts by: Jim D.

Two thoughts:

1. Looks like this is owner-occupied. If so, forget FHA and use a conventional 5% down for this comparison. The PMI will be way better and can be dropped when you get to 78% LTV.
2. If you have that $54k available to invest elsewhere, can you earn more than $600/month on it? If not, go with the higher down payment.

Well now I'm feeling left out. A few years back I actually rented a house to a former Playboy "playmate of the year", and have never heard of any videos that came from it.

You guys are really putting the a** in passive income.

Wishing you good luck on your search! I am going to disagree with some of the advice on this thread:

1. You can still get the same tax benefits from a MIL rental; it doesn't need to be a formal duplex.
2. MIL houses sell just fine, there are a lot of buyers who are looking for them especially in a high-priced market like SLC.
3. Don't do FHA. There are low down payment conventional loans available for single and multifamily owner occupied. Conventional HomePossible has far better PMI terms than FHA if you go that route and is still just 5% down for 2-4 units (the PMI is cheaper and drops off once you hit 78% LTV, whereas FHA stays on forever).
4. I've house hacked 5 properties (MIL and duplexes) and have never had a single issue from the tenants knowing I am the owner.

 
If your definition of speculative is that you are betting on an uncertain future outcome, then buying for cash flow is also speculative. Future market rents, maintenance costs, tax law and regulatory changes, population in your area, etc. are not a guarantee either. 

Hopefully after he gets out of prison, he has to serve another 10 years as a property maintenance tech.

Try America First Credit Union in Utah. They did 80% LTV HELOCs for my rentals there a couple years ago and I believe they still offer it.

How far away is the property? 

I would never recommend doing your first flip in a different city, especially one with narrow margins like this. It's hard enough managing a flip when you're right down the road.

"Be careful. Your friend Jason had a rental property for a while, and it was a disaster."

"Oh really? What happened?"

"The water heater went out... it was terrible. They had to replace the water heater."

"..."

If his rent is high, then I think it would help you to have a longer lease in place.

As long as you have one unit open, the property will still be attractive to owner occupant buyers, who are often willing to pay the highest prices for properties since they usually self-manage and get better interest rates on their financing.

I would echo the sentiment to buy your first property in good condition already. Don't worry about getting a screaming deal on it as long as the numbers make decent sense. You don't need to hit a home run on your first swing; you need something that will get you started. A rehab would be pretty overwhelming if you had never owner property before or worked construction.

The more properties I buy, the more I realize it doesn't really matter what my first one was. The only important thing about that one was that it got me started.