All Forum Posts by: Moises R Cosme

Thanks for posting this... Where did you get the report? 

I assume you are asking what things have changed.

1. Increase in down payment, from as low as 10% to 35%

2. Increase in origination fee from as low as 1 point to 3 points

3. Decrease in acceptable combined loan to value ratio, from as high as 80% to as low as 65%

Julie, 

Why are you looking to refinance?  Before you proceed with a refinance, take a look at the amortization schedule of your current loan.  How much of your monthly payment is going to principle?  How much of your monthly payment is going to interest?  If you refinance into a new 30 year loan, you are re setting the clock on your amortization schedule.

Mortgage companies push refinances no matter what interest rates are doing, because they generate huge profits from originating mortgages.  Look at your specific situation and weigh out the long term costs of taking on a new loan versus the short term benefits of lowering the interest rate on your mortgage.  

I hope this post helps!!! 

If you payoff the car, can you use that money to make you more money?  The key thing here is opportunity cost & the future value of your money.  

If you take $20,000 and payoff the car, that is the end - car is paid off & it will depreciate, without making you any money.

Our average return on investment is 87%, that means that if we put $20k in, we get the $20k plus an average of another $17,400 back...  

Your decision hinges on opportunity cost & future value of your money.

Awesome!!!  

Blake, 

1. I think you should choose to focus on either commercial or residential because there is not much cross over; the guys that buy commercial, typically, buy commercial exclusively and vice versa.  Each type of real estate has a steep learning curve and long term investors typically specialize.  

2. Look on Zillow.com, filter for bank owned properties that have been sold in your market.  Take the addresses of the properties and run them through the whitepages online, you should be able to get a phone number for either the owner or a tenant that way (the number that comes up is most likely to be the person currently living there).

3. Simplest way to figure all of this out is to become an Agent, as an Agent you would have access to MLS data

1. I think people jump in & out because it is difficult to develop systems for each component of the job and follow them.  I am lucky because I have an acquisitions manager that has a background in systems development, he basically trailed me around for a year and synthesized everything we do into a few spreadsheets and check lists.  Having the ability to effectively intern for a whole year says a lot about where both us are financially, so in sum there is a lot to the job, tools are not readily available and lastly you need to be financially stable in order to do it full time.  The last part is particularly challenging because it means you need to make enough money where you just go out and do something that you are not being paid for.  You also need to have enough money to support yourself and lastly you need to have additional money to fund your new business activities.

2. It is reasonably easy to do 1 or 2 deals per year on the side; the real challenge is to buy at least one house per month.  So, again I think the level of commitment increases exponentially when you try to scale beyond 1 or 2 deals per year.

3. I agree, it would be great if more investors either went full time or exited the industry.  I think this outcome is unlikely, television, radio and many other avenues encourage every day folks to become 'investors', and they make flipping houses look easy or cool.  The media pieces rarely show the difficulty associated with the business, choosing instead to always add the standard 'we broke a wall & found this...' segment to their pieces.  

Lastly, I believe professionals benefit from an industry where barriers to entry are low and market participants are able to step in & out easily.  

Franklin, based on what you wrote here you are pretty close.  You need two consecutive years of income from one profession, once you have two years that can be verified through your tax returns you will want an average income of about $45,000 per year (which probably means you'll need to wait for a third year).  

If you purchase a property for rental purposes, you can look into a collateral based loan from a lender like LendingHome; they lend money on properties based on what they are worth, not your specific financial situation.  These loans are more expensive and have strict terms but it may be an avenue for you to get started.  

If you want to own something around $160k, you will need to make a minimum of $36,400/year.  Look up the following terms as well:  (1) housing ratio, and (2) back end ratio.  

If you plan on doing a full gut rehab, then yes, I would say getting an inspection is a waste of your time and money.  Why are you looking into mobile home investing first?  Have you looked at some of the pitfalls?  

@Justin Black  

1. First deal took 3 weeks to find

2. On average we look at 25 properties before we make an offer

3. On average we make 4 offers for every 1 that is accepted

How are you sourcing deals?