All Forum Posts by: John Ford

I hate that these dogs, and many other great breeds, get a bad rep because of a few bad owners. But it is what it is.

Your agent may be sure she can find you a new policy, but there will likely be an annotation in your C.L.U.E. report which insurance underwriters have access to and will base your policy on. Whatever you decide to do with the tenant, once it's resolved, I'd pull my report from LexisNexis and see what's on it to make sure it accurately reflects the situation.

I've never done a 5+ apartment deal but that is where I want to end up, eventually. I was under the impression that those properties are basically valued on their rent history. Have you been able to increase rent significantly and or reduce vacancies? What class would you say your units are and what is the class of the area. Were your renovation extensive enough to bump the units from say a C to a B or was it more just a matter of turning a dingy C unit into a bright, shiny C unit? Congrats on your success!

I don't see how they're going to be much better than a credit union that keeps the loan in-house. And again, we're not talking about mortgages here, or even a regular HELOC. This is an interest-only equity line/loan on a non owner-occupied house. I'm comfortable with the rates provided by the institution, just trying to decide which product is best for me.

@Scott Jones You're comparing apples to oranges, comparing mortgage rates to equity rates. I agree that the rates aren't mind-blowing but they're not terrible. 

@Percy N. I've looked into some private lenders and the rates of the ones I've found aren't *that* much better, if at all. I'm looking at one now that's offering 9%, 60% LTV, and $1500 in closing costs, 1st position lien. Makes 9%, 70% LTV, and no closing costs on 2nd position lien look pretty good to me.

You're in Colorado Springs so I'm going to assume you're in the Air Force. As a Marine veteran and having been TAD to some Air Force bases and seen how much y'all work...yeah, I think you're good to go on time.

Inter-service ribbing aside, best of luck to you. I wish I'd been bright enough to get started when I was a young serviceman.

That's a good point @Kevin Siedlecki that I realized on some level but hadn't put as fine a point on. Thanks for the advice, everyone! I think I'll give them a call tomorrow about starting the process for the HELOC.

@Tim Fordham the loan is fixed for the life of the loan (15 years) at about 9%. The HELOC is currently at 6.75%. I guess if I'm only in it until I can refi a property, couple of years or so max, there might not be too much risk... unless I get into a situation where I can't refi a property. I guess I'm leaning towards the HELOC, but it sort of feels like a trap. Just wondering where the catch is.

@Account Closed haha, no impressing hot chicks. I use my flashy dance moves for that ;)

Thanks @Brent Coombs. I'm chomping at the bit to get my financing in order to start looking at deals in earnest. My chosen "farm area" in Atlanta is very competitive with investors, right now. The real deals seem to come and go in the blink of an eye. I also plan to do some direct mailing and even flyer hanging, myself, to try and drum up some of my own deals. I hope to be pestering you all about prospective deals aplenty in the new year. But I want to be in a position to move on a deal ASAP when it presents itself and not running around trying to find money. Some say having money before striking the deal leads to over-paying but I think I'm disciplined enough to ward that off for the most part.

Look into Navy Federal. They'll loan up to $100k or 70% combined LTV on investment property equity. Message me privately if you want info on how you can become eligible for membership.

I have an investment property that has a crap-ton of equity from appreciation, about $250k in equity. My credit union will give me up to $100k in either an investment HELOC or investment equity loan, which I'm planning to use as either a down-payment or to buy another property to BRRRR. The loan has a fixed rate, a 5-year interest-only period, then a 10-year P&I period.

The HELOC has a variable rate, a 20-year interest-only draw period, then a 20-year repayment period. So theoretically, I could use it over and over for the next 40 years to finance BRRRR properties! But the rate adjusts monthly and isn't capped until 18% (currently nowhere near that, but you never know...)

Would you take the HELOC or the loan?