All Forum Posts by: Niti Jamdar

Hi All,

Thanks for making Bigger Pockets a wonderful community where I learn something new every day!  I was hoping to get some advice about portfolio lending for single family rentals.  To give you a quick background, I'm a working professional with a W2 income, investing in single family rentals in the Philadelphia area.  I have 6 rental properties (profitable) and all of them have been 30-year fixed mortgages.  As I'm getting close to the 10 loan limit (I have 7 loans including my primary residence), I'm hoping to expand my portfolio in the next 2-3 years, and therefore trying to figure out what my options are for obtaining loans beyond the stipulated limit of 10 loans.  

I have heard the local credit unions may be willing to provide portfolio loans.  I have a few questions: 

• Based on your experience, are credit unions my best option?  Are there any other sources that I could tap?
• And if so, how do I go about approaching these credit unions?  Do I need to share some sort of P&L to show them that all my properties are profitable?  
• Do you have any tips of how to get the best loan terms and interest rates from the credit unions?  
• Does anyone recommend a particular credit union in Philadelphia?  Any advice would be super helpful.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Niti

Great, thanks Chris! I'll definitely look into a 203k loan.

Hi all, I have a financing question for a good investment opportunity - a house hack. I'll start with a quick background - my wife and I are working professionals, and have been investing in real estate as a side business for over a year with 3 rental properties that are profitable. We are planning on buying and remodeling a duplex - we will live in one unit and rent out the other unit. The duplex house is a 5 bed 3 bath requiring a complete gut job. The purchase price of the house will be around 350k, and the remodeling will cost us around 150k. We plan to put a 5% down payment for the house, and are hoping to get financing for the 150k in remodeling costs. We think we can rent the one unit for around $1,500. My question is this - what kind of financing options do we have for the remodeling cost of 150k? Can we get some sort of construction loan that can be combined on top of our home mortgage? Is such a loan hard to obtain considering we'd only be putting 5% down? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! Niti

Thanks Greg and Alec!  So it turns out that the issue is more serious than I had initially thought.  One of the neighbors called us today, and listed the following issues:

1) There are 5 people living in the house (there are only 3 on the lease), and the house has become a party house with 10-12 people going in and out every day

2) Allegedly, pot is being smoked frequently in the backyard at said parties

3) Drunken behavior including peeing in the backyard where neighbors can see

Now I'm a little worried that illegal activity may be going on at my house.  At this point, I want to send the tenants an email with these issues listed (so that I have documented proof of communicating with them).  And I'm considering letting their parents know.  Although I do feel bad about telling their parents about pot/drinking every day, but I also don't want the kids to get arrested if someone calls the cops on them one of these days.

Is there anything that I should do to cover myself from a legal standpoint?

Thanks again!

Niti

Thanks Joe, Terry and Kevin for super helpful advice!  :)

Hi all - I wanted to get your thoughts on a tenant issue that I have encountered.  For about 9 months I rented our 3 bedroom apartment in philadelphia to 3 fresh college graduates (all 3 have a job).  About 4 months back, we got a call from one of their neighbors that these kids are very loud - one of them is in a band, and has jam sessions with drums in the house.  And that they have parties at their house a few times a week.  We had immediately called the tenants and voiced their neighbors concerned, and asked them to keep the volume low, and not practice after 8pm.  They agreed, and they also went and talked to the neighbors and reassured them that they'll keep it down.  

Today, we got another call from a few neighbors who wanted to complain about the noise.  To give some background, our tenants are otherwise good tenants...they pay the rent on time, and keep the house in relatively good condition (other than being messy).     

We're planning to have a more serious chat with them this time, and also involve their parents (their parents are on the lease as co-signers).  Is there anything else we should do?  We don't want to evict them yet.  What should our approach be when we discuss this issue with our tenants?  Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!  

Hi Sukrita - welcome to bigger pockets!   There are several neighborhoods in Philly that you could consider buying in, depending on the rent that you're looking for, and also the appreciation you seek.  The neighborhoods that are currently attracting investors are:  Point Breeze, Gray's Ferry, Port Richmond and Brewerytown.  For a budget of around $50k, you have the option of buying a fixer upper, doing some re-hab, and then rent it out.  A way you could do this would be - buy a house for cash for around $40-$50k, and then refinance it to get some cash out that would cover for your re-hab expenses.  If you're looking to buy a rent-ready house for that price, you might have to look in C neighborhoods (i.e. low income neighborhoods with potentially high crime rates) which come with it's own set of challenges, and will require more hands-on work on your part.  It's definitely do-able, it just depends on how involved you want to be with managing your tenants.

As @David Bokman suggested, it would be good to come up with a business plan as far as what you're looking for in rent, what kind of financing you will use, tenants you'd like to service (i.e. good credit, pay rent on time), how passive do you want it to be, etc.  Once you have this outlined, it'll help you pick the neighborhoods and types of properties that help fulfill your objectives.

I invest in Philly, and have a few rental properties.  Feel free to reach out if you need any help.

Hi Alicia, welcome to bigger pockets! My wife and I are based in Philly, and invest in buy and hold rental properties. If there's anything you need help with, feel free to reach out.

HI Joe,

Thanks so much!  It would be great if you can pass along your CPA info.  I will send you a PM shortly.

Thanks!

Niti

Hi guys - I am looking for a CPA to help me save on taxes each year since we now have multiple rentals and it is becoming important to get the right advice. Is there someone you guys would recommend in and around center city? I guess it's also OK if they're remote. Our HRBlock guy is good but extremely conservative and does not save us enough in my opinion plus he charges us an arm and a leg as well. I also would like to get advice from time to time from this person so someone well-versed in the real estate taxes area would be great.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!