All Forum Posts by: Mike Olson

I used some older posts similar to this last year that helped me tremendously, so I thought I would leave this here to possibly help someone out or see if anyone has anything helpful to add.

I sold my primary res in February and have been renting a room for cheap. I have excellent credit, almost no debt right now, no auto loans, five different $20+ thousand credit cards, an $86 thousand heloc on a free and clear rental with no balance, and a salary of $80 thousand/yr. 

Work is sending me to Aurora CO in four months for at least three years and I would like to buy a house there BUT before I jack my DTI through the roof I'm thinking this is a great opportunity to open a few more personal LOCs. Basically I have 4-6 months to open as many lines or to CLI as much as possible while my DTI is super duper low.

So far I have found two banks and two CUs that offer decent size locs. Keybank, Umpqua Bank, Langley FCU and BCU all offer unsecured lines up to about $50 thousand. I just thought I would post here before applying to see if anyone has had luck with unsecured lines or any alternative ways to access the cash moolah. 

Originally posted by @Peter Fennig:

Awesome return  but ouch on the accident ...hopefully this squirrel was fried for causing that much damage.

Have you tried talking to your homeowners insurance for the property in regards to that hopefully you had it? That's a pretty sizable loss that would probably be worth paying the deductible

I have spoken with them briefly, the plan is to gather some more information on the damage and see exactly where we stand. I have had this policy for exactly a month, I’d rather not make a claim unless it’s necessary. Which it very well may be.

Every squirrel within a 500 yard radius is now in significant danger. 

Ouch is right, thanks!

First deal went great!

Purchase price- $54,290

Repairs/Expenses- $6,550

Appraisal- $109,300

Expected rents- $950

I won an online auction for the property in January and up to this point everything has went well!

Yesterday I received the appraisal report and although I feel it’s a touch low (of course) I am still delighted with everything.

Today I was informed that a squirrel chewed through the neutral leg of my service drop from the street. This put 250v to a single leg in my panel. So far the damage includes the air conditioner, brand new refrigerator, brand new stove, brand new microwave and several ceiling fans. The utility company claims no liability for acts of nature.

Who is with me that this may be one of the unluckiest, unavoidable first property experiences of all time? No way to due diligence your way around that one haha

Oh well, I figured someone would enjoy laughing at my pain!

Anyone have a rule of thumb they use to estimate the cost of sheetrock replacement? I'm sure prices vary with markets and all of that good stuff, I'm just looking for some type of metric I can double check contractor estimates with. Thanks!

Great feedback I surely appreciate it. I wasn't so worried about saving the $500 as I was about being able to pull some equity out later on. The sellers appraisal is at 105k but asking price is only at 80k for a "fire sale" due to needing cash for a separate business. Anyways thanks for the help guys

Goodmorning all, I'm in a situation where the seller of a duplex I'm interested in is providing an appraisal she has already had done. Has anyone ever had their lender use a sellers appraisal? Or will a lender likely order another? I feel like flippers probably have their own appraisals done often when selling, is this just used as a metric for purchase price or will the buyers lender actually use their appraisal for the loan?

Great tip Patti, I did not even think about bringing that up.

Yep FHA is owner occupy within 60 days, I'm aware. One tenant in the duplex is on month-to-month so that will be the side that my wife would occupy.

If she lives in a duplex then the tenant pays all of our mortgage payment in this particular situation. The home in Virginia has appreciated a good bit since we purchased it and can either be sold or rented. We go from $1521 mortgage payment to a tenant covering almost all of our mortgage = saving $$$.

I understand that there are a lot of moving parts in my situation, but there are no inconsistencies. The underwriter says that I have no landlording experience so the rent on one side can't be used. I've heard that that's common.

Upen, the duplex is currently occupied on both sides. One tenant for over 8 years. They will not count the income from even one side.

My wife is able to stay in the current house. Not a big deal if she has to stay, we were just exploring the idea of moving her home while we were on deployment to save some $ and have her closer to family and friends. 

Thanks for the response.

Yep Upen Patel. Thanks for asking. Whew, here we go. I'm stationed in Virginia and the house I'm currently in was purchased with a VA loan. We have a deployment coming up and I have been shopping at my home of residence, Georgia, for a home my wife can occupy while we are overseas. We talked to a few banks, applied for an fha and put a duplex under contract. The only real problem is my DTI ratio is at .5 and the underwriter wants me to list my current property before moving forward with the fha loan. I've made it clear with a letter of intent that listing the current property is not happening. They're standing firm and not moving forward without the current place being listed. The loan officer assured me in the beginning that the DTI wouldn't be an issue, so I gave it no further thought. Now the underwriter is asking me to list my place immediately. Like are they serious? Any suggestion for a next move?