All Forum Posts by: Jessie Dillon

you could use hemlane permanently! much cheaper than a PM company, but then you'll never get calls. hemlane is like an online rent collection software, but they also have a call center; you give tenants their number, and they call for all maintenance requests / emergencies. you provide hemlane with your contacts for tradespeople and such. i wanna say it's like $50/mo. if you travel often, this might be well worth it.

make sure you're contacting everyone who's looking for housing in your area, even if your place isn't a perfect match for them!

consider renting it by the room to traveling professional only, to keep money coming in. a lot of traveling pros are looking for super affordable options and don't mind sharing their space, and filling a 4b unit is hard.

be sure to post an 'ad' about it in all travel nurse fb groups, especially local ones, with all nearby cities and medical centers typed out in the post, for people who search those terms in the groups. the posts will then live in those groups for months and months to come, for anyone looking for housing in the future.

consider putting in the work to build relationships with insurance displacement agencies. if this interests you, check out jesse vasquez on instagram.

through a broker in IL! 20% down, 25y amm. closed in july. @Jonathan R McLaughlin

 I wonder if they're listed on there but have been occupied for years, by tenants who moved in when the fair rent was less?

HUGE fan of house hacking to get the ball rolling! put 3.5% down on a 3- or 4-unit property, rinse and repeat annually 'til you're financially free. this is the easiest way, and it's so much more feasible when you're young! 4-units are best if you can swing the down payment, and don't be afraid of something that needs a little love. also keep in mind that you could turn around and STR or MTR one of the units after closing, if you want to up your monthly gross revenue & your area has demand! last tip: househacking isn't meant to cashflow. it's meant to drastically reduce your personal cost of living so that you can invest your income elsewhere. if you happen to cashflow, awesome, but if you break even and are getting debt paydown, appreciation, and tax breaks each year, that's the real win.

are all the 32 listings 3bedroom units? 

- are you okay with temporarily getting a 0% return on your equity? this isn't a failure. in CA you're probably getting great appreciation and you're also getting debt paydown / tax benefits owning RE.

- can you STR or MTR the property to create positive cashflow?

- can you go with a different lender? i just got a 5.68% rate on a 25y commercial loan. better rates are out there. 

check out brandon turner's book 'how to invest in real estate with no or low money down' for a ton of ideas, but here are some of mine:

- you can often put down just 10% if you buy the property at a discount. it's just a matter of finding a lender that has this option. not many do, but they're out there.

- occasionally, you can even get a property under contract for 80% of the value or less, and the bank can count your built-in equity as your down payment. this is more likely to be an option for someone who's not new to REI. you'd probably have to talk to 100 small local banks before one says yes. it's been done though.

- the 'low down payment' owner-occupied loans like FHA and owner-occ conventional do require you to intend to live in the home for the first year, but that doesn't mean you can't refi out within a year. you could refi in 6 months if you lenders allow that seasoning period (it was always 6 but went to 12 at some point over the last year. maybe it's back to 6). you'd need to buy a value-add property and basically do a live-in BRRRR to build enough equity to refi to 75-80% LTV conventional.

- you could do 0% down owner-occupied with a NACA or USDA loan. or a VA loan if you're a veteran.

- seller financing / sub-to.

- partnering, with your partner bringing the cash to the deal.

- private money lenders.

don't be afraid of hard money, it serves its purpose!

i use berkshire bank, it's a more local/regional bank in MA that i've been with for like 15 years for personal & both businesses. i like that i can walk in and everyone knows me, anytime i have an issue, which i just about never do. i actually didn't know stessa was a bank, i thought they were just a bookkeeping software! for that, i use reihub (the extension of rentredi). i use quickbooks for my other business but my RE portfolio doesn't require something as robust.

8.3% is a little high, i think the average is 2-3%. it's the points that killed you. if you're using a mortgage broker or buying down your rate, that'll do it. in many cases it's totally worth paying for those two things (a lower rate and a great broker). ask the seller to pay the points!