All Forum Posts by: John Fortes

Hey John! My wife and I bought a condo in Cocoa Beach in Dec 2015. We gutted it and renovated it for weekly rentals. It is on the beach, a 1 off unit that is in a great complex. My advice to you in that area is to check and make sure you can advertise weekly rental in your complex. This was a huge factor in where we bought. We are in a complex that is allowed to do so and it attracts weekly Summer rentals as well as weekly Spring/Fall Break rentals AND Winter snowbirds for Jan-March. We love that area and have had great success advertising on VRBO and FLIPKEY. Happy to discuss further if needed. Feel free to inbox me.

Hi John, 

Thanks for coming! I hope you can make it to the next in the series! www.privatemoneyrockstar.com

We just settled on smaller amount of HELOC, which is still going to be enough for a down payment on duplex. We decided to take it slow and excepted a fixed rate of 3.99, 3 years draw period and 10 years Amortization period. So we have 3 years to use that money. I guess our lander is cautious and doesn't want to give away long draw periods considering the uncertainty of market in the nearest future. We are now looking for a deal, which is getting harder and harder to get in our area, considering that we want a low risk area with good schools and dissenting apreciation. Those properties are being snached by house hackers who don't mind offering more then asking price since they use FHA and only have to put around 3.5 of down payment and use the benefits of low mortgage rates.

I agree John! My husband and I have talked about this as well! We are unsure if we need to do the back and forth thing as well when we are looking to refinance. Our plan (at the moment) is to get the loan through our name and then transfer to the LLC after we refinance. Unless there is anything that makes sense to go straight to the LLC and keep it there we will plan to do that.

Yup. I looked up a handful of small local banks online first and several of their websites said they worked with small businesses. But I found that once I went in person to talk to them, it wasn't as small business friendly as their website made it sound. I would tell them my business plan of buy and hold rental properties under my LLC, and see how they responded. The bank that worked out for me was of course the one that didn't have any issue with it.

They explained that it'd be no problem for my LLC to have mortgages with them (and of course title the properties in the LLC's name). My LLC did need to open up some banking accounts with them though. Also, since it's an LLC, the mortgages are "commercial" and the interest rate is a touch higher. And finally, my bank (and probably most) did/do require that members of the LLC personally guarantee the loans. That way, if the LLC defaults on one of the mortgages, they can chase after us individually.

The key is to shop around a lot until you find the right one. And yes, be up front and tell them that you have a LLC and want the LLC named on all mortgages and property titles. It might be a little tough, but keep visiting different banks. Once you find the right one, keep going back to them to form that relationship.