All Forum Posts by: Lizbeth Castellano

@Jaysen Medhurst Thank you so much for your response Jaysen, just to be clear, your saying I may be able to get a 5% down conventional loan while I have my condo, or after I sell the condo?  All of the towns you suggested are on top of my list; all good towns with great school districts.  Thanks again!    

Hello everyone, I'm new here and today is my birthday and look where I am, BigggrPockets because I'm determined to become a successful real estate investor one day (best if sooner than later :-) while being a single mom and working a "9-5"  (more like 8-7pm which is why I'm looking to change that with real estate) and I think you guys are great, so thank you in advance for your help.    

I bought my condo almost 8 years; I don't have much equity on it and I think my best option to get started is to to buy a duplex or 3 family house where I can house hack because as a single mom I think will free up most of my expenses which in return I'll be able to save it all and use it to save that 20% to buy my next property.  Problem is I don't have the 20% cash right; most of these duplexes in my area (I'm in CT) in a decent town that I would consider are between $250k and up West Hartford would be ideal for me but there they are much higher.  

I thought about getting a personal loan so I can have the cash in hand when I find the property bc all the good ones go pretty fast but this will limit my buying power and I'll be paying higher interest or sell my condo so I can qualify for a higher conventional loan and only have to come p with the 3-5% as supposed to 20%.  

What do you guys think?  Is there another option I haven't considered?  Any input would be appreciate it.  

Thank you 

Liz - future real estate investor

@Natalie Kolodij. Thank you Natalie I think that's why I was so upset bc I thought I was making a smart move and I did expect a slight drop bc of those 2 cards but not 70+ drop 😲! None the less Im saving hundreds if not thousands in interest charges so even if it takes a lil longer to start investing im hoping it was the best move.

@Joe Splitrock thank you Joe I am going to give that a try. Do you know if I have to wait 30 days or more to try to get those credit cards increased? Now that I think of it, it's kind is silly that in have cc with over 25k line yet they only gave me 5k each so now with lower utilization they may consider increasing it?!!

@Timmi Ryerson. Thank you Tammy I appreciate the input. I didn't close any cards so I'm hoping with the increase of credit line and lower debt and overall utilization it will get cleared up soon.

@Daniel Hennek. Thank you Daniel

@Aaron K. Hopefully it will not take much longer, thank you Aaron!

Hi everyone, bran new here and to real estate investing. Last month i took the little money I had (10k) and used it to pay down my high interest credit card debt. Thinking this needed to be done prior to my real estate investing career and in hopes it would help me get better interest rate once I start the pre approval process.

I had about 20k in credit debt I paid 10k and did a balance transfer to 2 zero APR cards for 5k each which gave 12-15 months zero APR. Ive been waiting for this to be reported to the credit agency and when I looked today TransUnion had me up 80 points but Equifax has me down 72 points! My utilization is under 20% I don't understand? Did I hurt myself because while I brought my overall utilization from 36% down to under 20% those 2 cards are "maxed out" ? Will this hurt me when I go apply for a conventional loan? I currently own a condo but I'm interested in getting a multi family home to house hack. B

Are there any lenders that can clarify this for me?

Thank you