All Forum Posts by: Joseph Firmin

Hi @Christopher Huang, I'd recommend reading David Greene's book on Long Distance Real Estate Investing. That can and should open your eyes to the possibility of getting outside your market. Follow the steps he lays out and you will find a way and be successful. Cheers!

Hi @Kelly Kolker - Short answer: No. You can go commercial and get a commercial loan that packages all 4 properties together. I'm doing this now with a credit union and getting 85% LTV (15% down). Additionally, if you go the residential lending way, then you can find lenders willing to lend on the income of the property and not necessarily need the 20-25% that is conventional. Usually 25% is for a multifamily and 20 is for a SFH.

Hi @Britt Slayton, this is a personal decision. I'm a fan of going multifamily ASAP for many reasons. Maybe look for a duplex first and then scale up from there. Good luck!

I'm a fan of the HELOC. You can also pay it down faster than a mortgage, which will free it up even more sooner again for use.

I don't see why not. At the end of the day, you are analyzing the performance of the property. Some of the inputs might have different names and loans may have different terms there, but the math should be similar. Give it a try and see if it makes sense. 

Hi @Justin Tuminowski, check out IVA Providers or VA4REI. They can help you out. Haven't used VA4REI, but IVA Providers has been recommended to me.

Whew... where to start. I'll keep it short though. Here are 3 of the biggest tips: 1) Get a minimum of 3 bids on any job over $1,000. 2) Get a contract and Include a clause on the contract that states if the contractor is late in completion, there is a penalty, but if he completes it ahead of schedule, there is a bonus. If the contractor doesn't want to include this - run away. 3) Be extremely specific about the materials and finishes you want used. Include links to the products at Home Depot/Lowe's in your statement of work. Hope those help!

Good questions @Minh Cao! The LLC vs. personal name is your call. If the LLC is meant for development and construction and not for holding and managing properties, you may want to keep it out of that particular LLC, perhaps a new/different one because it is a different business type/income stream.

For a cash out refinance, you can find lenders willing to do 80-85% LTV cash out. Knock on enough doors and you'll get there - especially try local credit unions and portfolio lenders such as LimaOne. Good luck!

Hi @John Akhlaghi, while I do not have student rentals, I can recommend a BP podcast where this was the key topic. It was epidsode 140 with Bill Syrios. Hopefully you can take some nuggets of wisdom from that!

Couple ways come to mind: 1) Find a portfolio lender - aka a lender that keeps their loans on their own books - doesn't sell them; 2) Go commercial @Michael Myers, commercial lenders will let you package properties together into 1 loan and they typically use the property performance as the measuring stick for the loan. Trying to get conventional residential financing is time-consuming and cumbersome. Once you have 1 or 2 properties, try to make the leap to commercial, you'll be glad you did.