All Forum Posts by: Laleh Omaraie

Interesting - although I haven't been looking quite as hard in those areas, I've been browsing from time to time and have neve run across any cabins in that price range in any of those areas. With all the investors trying to get into the Shenandoah-ish area, is that still even a reality?

$13,000

 Huh? Cats aren't dogs. Many (most?) of them don't just come up to strangers looking excited about it... mine wouldn't even have let me hold them with you there if they hadn't met you before.

I've had cats my whole life and never personally had a cat, nor had friends with cats, who have scratched walls and cabinets... not sure what sort of craziness is going on there. The only part of the house I could imagine a cat damaging would be flooring/baseboards if they spray. Cats that are fixed and healthy shouldn't be spraying. Otherwise, if a cat scratches the sofa, that's the tenant's sofa, unless you're providing the place furnished, so not sure why you'd care about that.

Finally, declawing cats is animal cruelty. Anybody who willingly declaws their cat to appease a landlord shouldn't have a cat. It's insane to me that you'd even ask that.

Robuilt has videos explaining how he builds his team, etc... 

I have income from a W2, 1099s/Schedule C, and rental income on my house hack. Something about this seems to make calculating my DTI wacky; I know lenders aren't just adding up my gross income from all these sources and dividing my debts by that. However, I haven't found anyone who would break down for me how exactly they calculate it, then. My understanding is that it varies from lender to lender as well.

The difference between being able to use a 10% second home loan vs a 20% down DSCR loan would mean a big difference in how quickly I can purchase my next investment. Understandably, lenders don't want to crunch these numbers for me before knowing if I'm ready to apply for a loan… but whether I'm ready to apply depends on whether I can get 10% down or not. Sigh.

So how can I accurately calculate my DTI to determine once and for all what my options are? Any advice or suggestions?

Next Mark covered all my closing costs ($994 total). The deal is that if I close this HELOC within 3 years (e.g. to open another) I have to pay that back.

I'd say house hacking sounds like a good plan. I'm wondering why you're looking into FHA - if you have good credit, you could do conventional instead, no? I bought my first condo out here at 24 and went in thinking I'd do FHA because I feel like everybody and their mother assumes FHA is the best option for first-time home buyers, but double check to make sure that's the case for you. The only thing I'd re-do if I had the chance would be buying a place I could create sweat equity with - mine was already move-in ready with no real updates I could make to force appreciation. Look for the worst-looking units in the best neighborhoods you can afford.

I'm a teacher. Every month some of my paycheck goes towards mandatory retirement contributions. I can't opt out of contributing entirely, but I currently contribute to an optional hybrid 457b defined contribution plan. I contribute 4% (the max) and my employer matches at 2.5%. (It's not 1:1 - if I contributed only 2.5%, my employer would contribute 1.75%.) My understanding is that I cannot take out loans against my retirement funds nor can I withdraw from my 457 unless I stop working for this employer. My overall financial goal is to hit Coast FI in the next 10 (preferably 5) years and my main vehicle for that is real estate - hopefully STRs.

 In my mind, it seems like contributing my 4% + the 2.5% cash match is better than hanging onto the cash and saving it for a down payment because the actual cash amount is so low (~$2200 from me and ~$1400 from my employer) that it seems like it wouldn't make a huge difference to a real estate deal and it allows me to be diversified. Con is that it's cash gone up front that can now only be touched under a limited set of circumstances.

Am I right in thinking I should keep contributing this 4%, or should I start getting my $220/paycheck back and start socking it away for a deal?

When you say "new to real estate investing" - do you own your primary residence, or are you renting? House hacking, as others have mentioned, is a great option, or you could consider STR as that's pretty hot in Virginia Beach.

For anyone still looking into this - I'm closing tomorrow on a 95% LTV HELOC on my primary with Next Mark FCU. It's been a really smooth, quick process. Now mind, I've owned this place for a year so I'm not sure if there's a seasoning period, but otherwise I recommend!