All Forum Posts by: Jay Lo

I mean in the sense of helping you you get approved for a loan. We sometimes hear real estate gurus say "have a good relationship with your bank, make sure they know who you are, what you do and they know you by name once you walk in the door." Guys, all good relationship that matters is how good you keep your checking account and your credit card with but none of this personal friendship with the people inside matter. You could have your mother working inside and it doesn't help you a bit to get approved.

Here's why... The people inside basically have no say on how your application is handled by the real decision makers. The local people only help you in filling out your application but after they send out your application, your on your own. It is to the people you've never meant and have no clue about who you are that will determine your fate. Your credit report , financial statement and the real estate deal will be priority to them in rejecting or approving your deal.

If you get denied for whatever reason and you go to your local branch with the bad news, they will simply apologize to you for not getting approved but cant and do nothing to overturn that decision. Only you, can make yourself better 3 or 6 months down the road for a better shot at an approval.

My advice: 1)Do keep a good checking account with them. 2)Deposit your rental checks or have your deposit rental checks with them. 3)Open a credit card with them(id even suggest a small $500 secured cc if your credit isnt perfect) 4)You dont need to smile or be overly polite with the local branch people because they cant help you when it really matters.

I welcome all inputs and comments.

8 unit apartment building. Each unit has 2 bedroom, kitchen and living room. I need to start putting the ductwork together. I will be buying 80,000 btu furnaces. each unit has its own furnace in the kitchen. 

Some people said 6 inch pipe but some said 8 inch, i need your opinion. 

I live in CT and invest in OH. I recently purchased an 8 unit apartment building free and clear. My thing is, I want to transfer it to LLC. I opened it in OH but I heard its better to open it in my own state. I was going to change it but legalzoom told to me the CT is $279 as opposed to just $99 for OH. So that means id have to pay more to switch it and also the CT tax rate is 6.35 and the OH tax rate is 5.75

Whats your take and advice on that? Should I keep it in OH since thats where i invest or pay more to switch to my own state where i live.

@Josiah McGinnis Great tenant! Ask him if he could make a 2 bedroom apartment in the basement for you while he s replacing the toilet.

@Skye Anderson Well, its really depend. When you say you cant self manage coz u live out of state, i really dont know whether to disagree or agree with you. Living out of state is too vague of a statement. Please be more specific. Like, do you live 20hrs away(driving) from the state where u invest or is it like 7hrs away? What kind of job do you have? Does it give you the flexibility to take time off very often or is it more like u get 2 weeks vacation every year. 3) Are you married with kids? Do you have a spouse/kids that prevent you from travelling? See? Be more specific. I live 8hrs away and i self manage. I do all evictions etc.... because 1) its only 8hrs drive 2) I work my job whenever i want(no boss telling me oh u just took a vacation). 3) Im not married.

Cash out refinance is a debt but heloc isnt a debt until you start spending it. So how refinancing with heloc be a problem to banks?

But heloc isnt cashing out. Its just a line of credit available to you. If you havent used a dime out of the heloc, is that still a problem?

I own a 8 units apartment building free and clear in Ohio. Its worth 250k. I need cash to buy more so I was wondering if I could pull out an heloc and refinance it at the same time. 

So, my idea is the heloc is just an open line of credit so I dont think that would prevent me from refinancing it. Would that be a red flag for a bank to see a open line of credit for 200k when refinancing it?

Heloc for 200k and cash out refinance another 200k. That would get me 400k total to invest.