All Forum Posts by: Mary White

I'd buy the largest value-add multi-family property that I could afford without partners. I'd use the cash flow from that property to build up cash for additional large property purchases. A windfall would give you the opportunity to by-pass house hacking and other things that may or may not appeal to you and move on to bigger things. I'd work and move forward like I didn't have the property and just use my bigger shovel to build up cash faster. Best of luck!

In my own experience finding a property first and then making an offer on something else contingent on the sale of the first house is the easiest route. I did this in 2017, and found myself with two great properties that I had to choose between. The biggest lesson I learned is that you need good powers of persuasion to convince a seller to take your contingent offer over another one. In my case, I was willing to pay $5000 more than other buyers if they'd work with me on the exchange. Also, the selling realtor wrote up a letter detailing the time on market of homes like mine. My home sold in a week and it took 3 months to close out the whole exchange. Best of luck and enjoy the process. My advice is definitely to sell and redeploy your capital. 

I do understand that I should've refinanced before purchasing the other home. The problem with that is that we've been casually looking for a new primary residence (for 5 years) while non-stop refinancing properties all year long. The right house came along and we were able to offer on it before it hit the market. With a tidy 45 days to close and a 4-plex also in the works, there just wasn't wiggle room to make a HELOC work. I didn't "hose myself," I made an educated decision that was best for my family. Also, I don't understand why what I owe doesn't matter. What I see is that I do have $125,000 in equity and that gives me options (which is a good thing).

We bought the house as a foreclosure with $3000 down in 2011. About a block away they are filling up a big farm field with $350,000 brand new homes with the same square footage. My gut move is to keep it. Thank you for the HELOC advice but we do own more than 3 financed properties. I suppose I could talk to PenFed and see if they'd work with us. Do they work in Oregon? Does PenFed also do investment cash out refinances?

The house would cash flow $700-$800 per month not refinanced and $200-$300 with a refinance. Also, our new home has 1000 square feet of unfinished space that will allow for a hefty HELOC in the future.

My current primary residence is worth $250,000-$275,000 and I owe $118,000. We just closed on a new home and didn't have time to refinance the current primary due to other loans closing. Now we need to pick our best route forward to continue our investing. The house in question is in a highly desirable neighborhood and has been fully remodeled. Also, we are long term buy and hold investors with a current mix of single and multi-family homes and. We're set to close on a 4-plex in January and will be ready then for financing needs. Would you rather... 

1) Rent out property and do a cash out refinance at 70-75% LTV leaving $50,000-$75,000 for investing and about $200 cash flow per month.

2) Sell the property and get between $120,000-$150,000 (For sale by owner) for investing

3) Find a HELOC product for an investment property

4) Rent it out for 1-2 years and then sell to avoid capital gains and allow for appreciation or at least re-evaluate.

I would love to hear advice and also stories about what options you have chosen and how it's worked out for you.

Interesting posts guys. I'm slowed down right now because the past four years have been a massive load of work and progress. We've purchased multi-families in poor condition and done huge remodels that took every penny of spending money we had. This year I did multiple refinances and rather than purchase yet another property, we chose to upgrade our personal residence. We have children just starting to hit their teenage years and quality of life became a major factor.

We have plenty of chess moves left, but the thought of diving into another project is just exhausting. Right now I'm selling through personal and business items for the down payment on 4-plex in very little need of repair. I could just sell my former primary or get creative with financing, but it's really time for an adjustment. When we get aggressively back into the game, it'll be for larger projects with less manual labor required and my home lifestyle will be very minimalist and peaceful. 

I'm not sure if I've hit a roadblock or just the need for a nice long vacation. Once you have a good rental income coming in, it seems there is some need to step back and evaluate your future course of action. 

FMV is $265,000-$275,000 and we owe about $118,000 on the mortgage. I have 12 years of experience managing our rentals and have done lots of things from a 1031 exchange to a cash foreclosure purchase. We could even hold this home indefinitely if thats what best. Or use the money towards a 4-plex with $290,000 purchase price and cash flow at $800-$1000 per month. Or keep the primary, pull out cash and buy the 4-plex.

The total expenses for my primary as a rental are $1200 including mortgage, CapEx and monthly expenses. It can rent out for $1650-$1750 and there are no real expenses to prep it for rent. Part of my hesitation to sell is that my area was slow to recover from the recession and homes are appreciating nicely right now. Is there harm in renting it and waiting a year to sell? I really don't want to lose my 4-plex.

We're scheduled to close on a beautiful home for our family on November 15th. I'm also under contract on a nice cash flowing multi-family rental property. Our plan was to do a cash out refinance or HELOC of our current primary residence and use that for the down on the SFH, but the purchase happened way to fast (off market deal with 45 day close) and we need to use our savings for the down payment. Now, I need to find the money for the down on the 4-plex. My options are to sell my current primary and hope for a fast deal or to do a HELOC or refinance and rent it out. We have $150,000 in equity in the current primary, but I wasn't able to secure a HELOC before buying a new primary, so I don't know what to do. I could also do a HELOC on the new property, but I don't know if companies do HELOCs when you only have 20% in the property. I need $75,000 for the down on the 4-plex. Should I...

(A) Sell current primary, net about $130,000 and buy the 4-plex

(B) Rent out the current primary and do a HELOC or cash-out refinance

(C) Open a HELOC on the new primary and rent out the current primary

(D) Other Ideas, please

@Narinder Gill Yep, they just consider it a refinance. I suppose it's refinancing from not being financed. I'm on my third one of these now. It's possible with conventional loans and commercial. 

Interest rates are great right now. In my opinion, you should do a cash out refinance. I have several friends that lost their homes in the last recession due to HELOC's being called by the banks. They don't do that with an actual mortgage. I'm starting a cash-out refinance of a 4-plex very soon to help stockpile cash for my next move.