All Forum Posts by: Jena Richards

We bought our primary before ever dreaming of investing and put around 35% down on it. Obviously it would’ve been nice to know then what I know now. Our home appreciated 50k over 3 years and by then I knew I wanted to invest. So it isn’t that we weren’t able to save a down payment, it’s that we put too much of our savings into our first home. 

Our first investment property is cash flowing, not immensely, but that’s mainly because it’s a vacation rental that we enjoy in the off season. This year it’ll rent during the winter and cash flow nicely. 

The property I’m looking cashflows very well. 

The point of my question involving someone else paying down my heloc is because I don’t want to over extend myself. 

Our heloc is not maxed out and we have savings. 

I have a family member willing to give me some inheritance money early to continue investing.

I know the rules involving no gift money for investment property down payments. We have enough money for the down payment itself, however that completely exhausts our HELOC.

My questions: are gift funds ok for the 6 months cash reserves?

And

If my family member instead of giving me just cash, made a large payment directly into my heloc to pay it down, would that still be considered gift funds as a down payment / cash reserves? Or do they not look at where those payments are coming from ?

The first investment property we bought, we were preapproved without having either the down payment or reserves in our bank account. Once the actual loan app started, we were asked to deposit them, which we did from our heloc. Just curious as to how banks look at it.

Please note, I’m not trying to skirt the system, I’m asking so that I don’t do anything to either kill a potential deal or get in trouble :-)

@Joe Crupi

Thanks for the laugh!!! Feel free to shoot me a PM with property specific questions in the area. There are so many nuances block by block and property by property. I’m looking at one now for example that would work as a long term rental and not as a vacation rental. I know where most section 8 renters are located in town and also have connections to the code enforcement office if you need any specific questions answered.

For my own piece of mind, I start my search at BFE and higher to make sure my flood insurance won’t be eating too high into profits

@Josh Thompson I invest in Seaside. What you make during the summer only usually equals what you’d make during the year as a long term rental. If you rent short term during the summer and then offer the place as a winter rental you’ll cash flow all day.

@Joe Crupi

They are 100% revamping Seaside and branding it as family friendly. I own a rental there and have had 100% occupancy both last and this summer using Airbnb and HomeAway. Happy to answer any questions!

@Jessica Zolotorofe I know this is an old thread but just curious to hear opinions on the Western Slope area near the heights. I know property dips in value to the west of Kennedy Blvd but I’ve been finding it hard to really come up with good numbers for the area because most of what has sold was either a tear down or new build. What are good numbers on just solid 2 families around there?

@Bobby Movva I own a STR in Seaside Heights, NJ. With only renting it out during the on season and using it myself here and there, I make a couple grand in profit each year.

However, many owners rent their places in the winter to transitional renters. I chose not to do that because I use the house myself throughout the year, but my with my next property , the $1200 / month I’d make in the off season would be pure profit. Beach rentals can cash flow in the area like crazy. Just make sure you’re looking at places that have either been raised for are above flood elevation. Flood insurance kills profits.

@Kyle Ferguson what criteria are you using? Are you pulling data sets into the system or creating your own lists before mapping them and prioritizing? Just finishing my GIS cert now and have been dabbling with things like Matt has mentioned, school districts , flood plains, etc where the data is all nicely compiled and formatted already but very interested in taking that to the next level.

Thanks David! Sent you an email.

Hi BiggerPockets community! We've decided to go with a shore rental condo for our first investment property. Being that this is the only way to get my husband interested in beginning to invest, we want a Jersey Shore property we can use a few times and rent out the rest out of the summer. Not looking for insane cashflow, more like a break even scenario or even less with summer rental income helping to paying down our HELOC . Looking at foreclosures and short sales needing some work but nothing structural. 2bd 1 bath. Have 70k in cash with reserves to spend. Pickings are slim as of now but have seen some good deals fly by in the past year prior to us being ready to purchase