All Forum Posts by: John Olsen

Thomas,

Thanks for your reply I hope you're healthy and well. 

The first (and only) duplex I got was below market value.  I got it for 165,000 and could have gone for 175,000. It's an old house and I could add some value.  It's an old house build in 1890, but the structure and foundation is in great condition.  Just cosmetic work could be done.  The 2nd duplex opportunity that I mentioned is fully renovated and the only value I could add is new siding but everything else is new.  That duplex is also worth about 160,000 and I found it off market.  Great price I think.  

I plan to live in the first duplex until I get the next one.  The reason for this is because I would qualify for a residential loan instead of commercial which allows me to put down less than 20%. 

I can save about $1,050 per month after ALL expenses. I'm open to the idea of bringing investors in.  My friend has 30k+ just sitting in his bank account and I think I could get him in. 

Hello everyone, 

I purchased my first duplex 6 months ago. I live in 1 unit and rent the other. After PITI and all expenses I typically only pay $100 per month out of pocket total. I put 5% down and have a mortgage balance of $160,000 remaining. Conventional loan at 4.5% interest.

I have have an opportunity to purchase another duplex that i'm estimating will net $700 per mo. after PITI and all expenses. I only have $10,000 in the bank and want to purchase this second property. It's valued at $160,000 so my only option (that I see) is to put 5% down conventional loan.

My goal is to own a 6-10 unit apartment building in next 3 years. I'm don't know how i'll get there because if I continue only putting 5% down on my units I can't do cash out refinancing to put towards the 6-10 unit apartment building. Do I continue saving money instead of purchasing more duplexes for 5% down, do I use HELOC since I can't do Cash out refinance (if it's even an option), do I have to sell the duplexes to get my equity money for apartment building? My biggest question is how or when do I liquidate. Do I just have to sit back a few years until more equity is in homes, etc.

To answer you question about lenders including income potential from other half.. Yes, I have done 1 duplex deal that I house hacked and the lender did include income from other unit. However, they only used 70% of it. So if the other unit was $1,000/mo. they would include $700 as income for calculating DTI. I believe the 70% is standard, but can't say for sure.

Thank you all for the comments!!  The amount of support is amazing. 

Hi all!  I'm a handy guy at all.  Instead of having my handy man come over for every little thing I want to learn to do things on my own.  Does anyone know of a Blog, youtube channel etc. that is good for learning to fix things?  I'm sure there is a youtube channel that is a one stop shop for learning all different types of fixes.   

@Brian Gerlach from what I understand it depends on the lease agreement. Some agreements say a new owner can evict upon purchase. Some agreements state the tenant can stay and won’t be evicted upon new home ownership. I appreciate your reply. It helped!

@Wayne Brooks thank you. I will set up a time to meet with him soon. Appreciate the reply.

Hello everyone,  I plan on house hacking a duplex.  My private mortgage lender is allowing me to use a conventional load with as little as 5% down.  Now, I believe, he is only allowing me to put only 5% down because I plan on living in the duplex which would make it a residential property (right?).   From what I understand, if both units are rented out until September 2019, for example. I technically can't close the loan until September (when the lease is up and I can move in) since it's a residential loan.  I'm afraid that this might hurt my chances of closing the deal because the seller might want to close sooner.  Maybe i'm not understanding everything correctly but this is what i've been told. 

The house was built in 1896 and the foundation did not look good. I wanted to know all of this information prior to having to pay a GC and inspector.  That way I could know if there were any serious issues with the house before paying all the money for inspection etc.  Do you think that's a legit reason to back out of the deal? 

So I found a house that has the potential to be a solid house hack.  It's a duplex that would be cash flowing about $350 a month.  The asking price is $125,000.   It's an older property that I would only consider buying (especially since it would be my first) if I knew when the roof, floring, furnace, water heater, plumbing, etc. was updated.  When my agent asked the seller to disclose this information, he wouldn't.  I guess he has a non-disclosure (thing?) that says he does not have to provide this information to the buyer.   What is your approach to this type of property, and why do you think he would do the non-disclosure? Thank you all for what you do!