All Forum Posts by: Trey R.

Thanks for the advice!

Good afternoon,

I was looking for some advice on a potential tenant involved in a bankruptcy.  I have searched the forums and done some reading on renting to people who have been involved in bankruptcy.  I personally don't mind renting to someone in bankruptcy as long as they meet the criteria for everything including income, good background etc etc.

I have a person who is interested in renting my property.  The rent would be $1650/mo and they make over $100k not including the wife's income once she finds a new job after relocating.  Background checks all look good, they have owned another home for 20+ years and had to foreclose. 

When asked about any debts I was told that if they can secure a rental their attorney would be able to chapter 7 any outstanding debts.  Just curious if anyone can lead me down the right path for what I should be looking for in regards to not getting screwed over by the bankruptcy.  I've tried to do plenty of reading but I'm definitely no expert on anything regarding bankruptcies.

Thanks!

Trying to decide whether or not I should get a new roof now or not.

The current roof is 23 years old and needs replacing.  There have been no leaks but shingles go missing when a big storm comes through and they have to be replaced.  It shows pretty much every indicator of needing replaced other than leaking.

I'm in the midst of fixing my house up before renting it out for the first time and was going to do a cash out refinance on it.  Would getting a new roof affect the appraisal very much?  

Trying to decide if I can wait a little bit longer on the roof or if a new one would help in getting a higher appraisal on the house.

Thanks and hopefully this is the appropriate forum.

 Mainly for experience in having a rental property but also for investment purposes.  As long as someone else is making the mortgage payment and I'm getting a little extra on top of that I will be happy.

 Makes sense!  Definitely not wanting to deplete my savings..  I've already talked to the lender and got approved for the new place despite not having a tenant lined up so I'm good there.

Would doing a cash out refinance on my current house and getting enough to money to do 20% down on the new place be worth it to avoid PMI? I would have a higher monthly payment on the current place but at least the money would be going towards the mortgage and not being wasted like PMI.

 Ideally that would be the thing to do but I'm in the middle of doing some renovations and would like to get them completed first.  I'm buying the new house from someone I know who is moving out of state so we are trying to close ASAP.  In a perfect scenario I would pay them rent for a few months but they need to sell the house now. 

Financing it as an investment property would knock the interest rate to 4% which isn't terrible.

It's actually .85% now so not too shabby!

Looking for some suggestions on how I can best utilize my money in this situation.

Current House: Appraised at $141,000 in October of 2014 (Purchased for $122,000 in 2010) - Currently owe approximately $98,000 on the mortgage which is a 5/1 ARM. (It was refinanced last year to the ARM because I was going to pay it off in less than five years).

We are going to be purchasing a new house in the next month or so (baby on the way).

Price: Approx $200k (3.5% for 30 years using an FHA loan with a 3.5% down payment).

I have approx $22,000 in savings.

I'm planning on refinancing the current house after the new house is purchased.  I'm going to do a 30 year loan on it so that the payment is lower in preparation of having renters.  I would like for the payment to be low so that if I go any time without a renter than I won't be paying a bunch of money.

At this point I am just going to do the 3.5% down payment and be done with it.  Is there any reason why I should spend more money now and pay myself back by doing a cash out refinance on the current home I own after I close on the new one?  Ideally I would like to get the best deal without having to spend any of my own money.

I still have a good amount of research to do before renting the house out but I wanted to try and make the best financial decisions in purchasing the new house and refinancing the old one.

Hopefully this is the right forum...

I've been wanting to get involved with real estate investing for quite some time now but can't seem to make myself take the first step in actually doing something.  I think I've decided to start my venture with an inexpensive home to figure everything out.

The house already has a tenant that is paying $550 a month and has been there since 2006!

I have not been to look at the house or anything yet, just browing the web.

Purchase price:  $42,900

Tax value is showing $40k

20% down = $8,580

rent = $550 / month

Expenses:

property tax = 529/12 = $45/month

mortgage = $180/month

insurance = $16/month

vacancy (10%) = 55/month

repairs (5%) = 28/month

= $324

$550 - $324 = $226 cash flow a month including vacancy and repairs

$550 - $241 = $309 cash flow a month without vacancy and repairs

I know I need to do a few things since there is already a tenant.

-Get a copy of the current lease agreement

-Get proof of payment history

-Find out who is currently paying for utilities, who takes care of yard maintenance.

-Has the tenant filed any legal grievances against the landlord?

- Pets or no pets

Anybody see anything I'm overlooking?  I looked at the area and could probably even raise the rent if needed.