All Forum Posts by: Lloyd Preece

@Luis Silva appreciate the input Luis!

@Russell Brazil investment. Thanks for the input, I thought origination fees were supposed to be 0.5-1% of the loan amount so feels high

Hey guys, what interest rates/ loan origination fees are you guys seeing right now?

Through my mortgage broker I just got a quote for 3.875% for a 30 year investment loan on a SFH.

Origination Charge is $1740 with another $1500 or so for 1.5 points

Property price is $133K, 80LTV, Loan is $106K,

Origination charge feels high but interest rate is fairly low so thinking thats what im paying for. Does this look like an overall good rate and fee combination? Just want to make sure I’m not getting ripped off!

To provide an update here, the market is very hot. I've put in offers over the last 6 months between $130k-200K for MFs and SFs mainly in Bethlehem but also in Allentown. Usually at around asking price. There is plenty of cashflowing opportunities out there at around 7% cap rates and most MF inventory at that price point is in Allentown. I've offered on over 10 properties so far and been outbid every time unfortunately. Patience is key with this market and you may need to go over asking to secure an MLS deal.

Thankfully I have a fantastic investor friendly agent in Ronald Bowser https://www.biggerpockets.com/..., who provides timely and very detailed feedback on properties I enquire about. V good finger on the pulse on investment properties in the LV and has a few rentals himself. He makes it very easy for out of state investors and critically, will also turn me off properties where he doesn't believe there is good value or investor potential which is also incredibly important for long distance investors. Would recommend him to anyone looking for Buy and Hold in the area.

Hey Steven, i went on this same mission 18 months ago. I agree with Jon's comment about a successful House Hack not needing to be a break-even. In NYC you could easily be paying north of $2000 on rent for a mere bedroom, so getting your monthly housing cost to under 4 digits is a huge win. I found that LI/Brooklyn/Queens neighborhoods where househacking multifams was possible seemed to be too far for my commute to midtown Manhattan (generally around 1 hour from south/east BK/Queens). In the end I looked to Hudson County in NJ which had much lower door-to-door commutes and more HH opportunities. I ended up going for a $340K 2 bedroom condo in Weehawken (10-15mins to Times Square) with 10% down which resulted in a $2k housing payment. Market rent for 1 of those 2 bedrooms is $1000-1200, so you do the maths!

If open to NJ and you want to do multifamily looking at JC Heights, Union City and Journal Square. Honestly you wont find much under $500K unless you want to do significant work, but there are some good opportunities in those regions for 2 families with a basement that are house hackable. Other option (what i ended up doing and worth considering due to your budget) is buying a condo with low HOA and renting out rooms. You can get condos in good areas of Hudson county for under $400K with low HOA fees, minimising commutes but helping to lower you housing payment significantly compared to NYC rents.

I've listened to the majority of BPs Real Estate main podcast and there isnt one specifically on RTR, but there are turnkey podcasts. Episode 219 and 249, plus i think there was a rookie one, havent listened to myself yet but its episode 29

@Charlie Cooper Thanks for the advice, will have to keep a close eye on that then, out of interest are you bidding with conventional financial and standard terms? (45 day close, inspection/appraisal/financing contingency etc) Also what neighbourhoods are you looking at that are that competitive?

@Emma Fitzgibbon Thanks for your input, I've read that about South bethlehem but from monitoring Zillow/Realtor etc that seems to be where inventory pops up. Do you think north/west or even downtown Bethlehem would be out of the 200k price range for a multifmaily?

@Kathleen Messing Oh interesting, what made you go SFH over MFH? Yes sure would be happy to look at it and run the numbers if you want to DM those over!

Hi team, I'm looking to add a 3rd property to my portfolio this year and identified the Lehigh Valley as a good location to expand to. I'm currently house hacking in Weehawken, NJ (Working in NYC) and looking for a small Multifamily(~200k) buy and hold rental next. Lehigh Valley seems attractive due to Price to Rent ratios, significantly lower taxes than NY/NJ, geographic proximity to NYC/Philly, jobs in area (Amazon warehouses, fedex etc). Have also read good things about the downtowns of the likes of Bethlehem, but its difficult to narrow down neighborhoods without knowing the area too well. Looking for recommendations on neighborhoods to dive deeper into within the area in that price range, as well as connections and general advise from those who have invested in the area. Would appreciate any help!

Just to circle back on this, I ended up closing in January on a 2 bedroom condo house hack in a Weehawken building with low HOA but a seemingly good balance sheet. My logic of a condo over SFH or MFH was affordability, location (still 30 minute door to door to my Manhattan office) and trying to walk before running as it was first property. Whilst certainly not living for free, my housing payment cut in half compared to my previous rent so it provides a vehicle to accelerate savings for the next one. I then closed on a SFH rental in England and now looking to stack up to a buy and hold rental small MF in Pennsylvania or other areas of NJ.

All that being said, i did see a lot of Multifamilies with my BP agent in the Journal Square, UC and West New York areas. For properties not requiring a ton of work you're looking at $700-800K for a triplex or 2 family + bonus basement. That property type seemed to be the sweet spot for my criteria which was getting close to living for free, low money down, being very close to Manhattan, cash-flowing well when you move out and avoiding significant rehab. I'm sure theres off market BRRRR opportunities but i wasnt looking for that for the first househack.