All Forum Posts by: Lana Lee
Lana Lee has started 15 posts and replied 362 times.
Post: Newbie going from Hong Kong to Philadelphia, PA.
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Originally posted by @Brendan Markle:
Welcome to BP! Although pretty competitive, PHiladelphia is a great market for MFH's at the moment. I think you'll be very successful in the area. Best of luck!
What is so great about it? You might find some multyfalimy in questionable areas, but who would want to house hack there. The OK zipcodes are a battle field right now. A lot af people from out of states looking to park there cash. As to me, I can't compete with cash buyers. Properties are flying with the blink of an eye. And FHA buyer are driving prices up to the point that not only there is no cash flow but you are going to be in negative. You can tell economy is going strong. The question is for how long?
Post: How hard is it to get a property rezoned in Philadelphia county?
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Originally posted by @Dan Terysen:
- Hey Guys, I am looking at a property in Philadelphia with a similar situation. It is already chopped up into 4 units, but it is done so illegally as it is a single-family use at the moment. It is zoned RSA-5.
I know that you mentioned the process above. But I just wanted to know if maybe you have had some experience requesting these types of variances and can possibly estimate the chance of success of actually gaining the variance.
Or perhaps you have some insight on how the Zoning Board has been acting in the past few months or so.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
- Dan
I highly recommend to contact Yuriy Skripnichenko, not only he knows the process , but has a first hand experience .
Post: New Member Philadelphia Investor
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Found this post from year ago and wondering how did it go with 2-4 units multifamily properties that you were willing to purchase. Market seams to be going crazy with those.
Post: HELOC or Refinance to fund first property?
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Originally posted by @AJ Alexander:
Hi everyone,
I'm a newbie looking to get a first deal this year. I have a question in regards to the financing portion and what others may have done:
I have a HELOC on my primary residence which I could easily use to fund my downpayment. However another option I've heard is to re-finance my principal mortgage to pull equity out and consolidate the downpayment and remaining mortgage amount. I see it as pros/cons in either scenario. Does anyone have any thoughts on which scenario would be best?
We have 3.6 % with 30 years on our primary. Nobody would give us anything closer with cashout refinance. So we decided to take out HELOC with 3.99 fixed rate ,3 years draw period and 10 years Amortization , $0 closings costs. We did that in December of last year and still didn't use it, searching for the right deal. If we woud refinance in December we woud have to pay right away. With HELOC our payment will start the minute I use it.
But every situation is different. If it makes sense to refinance with better terms - go for it.
Originally posted by @Sherwin Gonzales:
@Kevin Means, I was in the same exact situation as you! I reconnected w/ a friend whom I came across on BP and we had similar goals, so we decided to partner up to scale faster and get a bigger deal together. We formed an LLC and purchased a multi-family property through the LLC. The LLC is on the title, loan docs, tenant contracts, etc. This provides us asset protection since we don't individually have our names on any of the documents and own the property through the LLC. I hope this helps!
I am still learning about thit stuff. A question . How does the bank figuring out if your LLC is worth landing money to? You said you don't have your personal names on any of the documents. Who are they going after if your LLC stops paying mortgage ?
Post: HELOC for a down payment on investment property?
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Originally posted by @Cole A.:
@Lana Lee, valid. Does the HELOC provider give 'check-writing' privileges, and you just use this 'check' to fund the down-payment on new property? Or would you have to 'write a check to yourself' to get the HELOC funds in your personal checking and let it season a couple months before using as a new downpayment?
I haven't used my HELOC yet, looking for the right property. But when it comes my way I will simply transfer the HILOC funds to my checking account which I also opened with the same credit union. And I can do that at home with the click of a button. Now, my lander doesn't require any seasoning, which will save me money on interest.
Post: First Rental Property Purchase
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Originally posted by @Sungpil Lee:
@Branden Ellenberger - Thank you so much for your feedback. At this point, I have only ran the numbers and it looks good as I mentioned. I have few questions in regards to the next steps if you don't mind helping me out.
1. What are the questions that I should ask the agent when I go see the property.
2. I am currently basing my rental income off of rentometer.com. I am not sure if you used that also and if you have, was the actual rental income close to what was in the website?
Rentometor is not always accurate. It's better to look at similar for rent adds on Zillow or Hotpads. By looking at the pictures you can actually compare the priorities condition.
Post: Philadelphia specific lease
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Originally posted by @Jeremy Fisher:
Hey all!
I'm in the finishing staging of getting my first rental property ready to list. Trying to get it listed Thursday.
Do any of you have a lease in mind that you found to be particularly useful? I'm really interested in having a lease that is tailored to Philadelphia, but maybe that is unnecessary. At this point I just leaning towards finding a PA specific lease online. I think having an attorney create one for me is most likely out of my price range.
Thanks for your help!
Standard PA lease works just fine. You can just add additional terms at the end in the space dedicated for that. For example " the laundry room may not be used for storage" or " no smoking anywhere in the building "
Post: Hi, I’m hungry, what’s your name?
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Having a down payment money is great but what is your credit like and what is your mortgage payment ability, what is your debt to income ratio? Lenders usually require to have stable job for at least 2 years in order to give a loan. You can always get a partner who can give you what you are lacking. But you would have to put responsibilities of each of you on the paper, preferably with the help of a lawer.
Post: About to get my first investment MultiFamily
- Philadelphia, pa
- Posts 364
- Votes 109
Originally posted by @Shimmy Yose:
Hi biggerpockets! This year i decided that its a time to start investing in a multi-family as a first investment in my life. Why? Because i wanna start bigger.
I know many investors here are very professional and i would like to get a little help from you guys.
So here is the story. Im 27yo and i moved from other country 3 years ago to the USA , my credit score is 700+ but its not long enough , its about 10months old. Im trying to work hard to get the credit the best i can like leasing a car and use a credit card.
I saved 100,000$ and i feel like im ready to buy a multi family property around 70k-90k each unit.
My questions are: 1. Any recommendations how i can get a loan/mortgage with that kind of credit score(700) for investing?
2. Can you guys tell me in a short story what is the process to get a loan? Should i go to the bank first to know how much they can lending me or to pick an investing first and than i should go to the bank? I just dont know what is my average property price that i should look for without knowing what is the loan that they will give me.
3. What you guys thinking about Florida multi-family market? What you guys thinking about Philadelphia area? What you guys thinking about Houston ?
4. Any other states/cities you guys recommend me to take a look for multi-family investment?
5. What the most important questions to ask the seller about the property ?
6. What is the solution if i cant get a loan from the bank because my credit score?
7. THANK YOU SO MUCH !
You should pick a property that you like and think you can afford, by analysing it, lets say, on Zillow mortgage calculator and include all other possible expenses needed to maintain the property.
I can give you a mortgage broker that I used. Give him a call and have a chat. He should be able to tell you without pulling your credit approximately how likely you are to get the property you picked. Just give him an address of the property and answer some questions so he can determine your debt to income ratio.