All Forum Posts by: Sarah Brown

I agree with Cody that you can use some of your equity to help get the investment party started.  However, finding someone with a chunk of cash that is willing to loan to your cause is also fantastic.  Perks are finding more creative ways to negotiate lending.  Their money is working, and you aren't out any additional funds.  They would utilize the new investment as collateral on the money they are lending. 

This sounds doable.  I would double check with your lender that there will be no issues with a refi in under one year.  I know there are issues for owner occ (you get flagged for mortgage fraud), but unsure on an investment property. 

This is what I do with mine. I buy them as owner occ, move in and fix them up, move out, turn it into a rental, and transfer title to an LLC. Keep in mind if you have a loan, the lender generally has a clause that says if you transfer title they can call the note due. They have never done that to me, but doesn't mean they can't. I have insurance covering both personal and LLC name.

Doable if you are smart about it.  A lot of folks had done it in the '08 crash and lost everything because everything was leveraged by another property. 

Are you able to pull a HELOC on it and use some of the funds form that for a DP on the next property? If your goal is cashflow, and it's cash flowing, then I wouldn't sell it. Just leverage it for your next investment.

Putting your primary residence into an LLC won't really do you much good. I wouldn't waste your time or money.

Contact an attorney in your state.  CA has different rules right now than the rest of the country (shocker, I know).  

There are some pretty big variables here that make it impossible to answer this question.  When you purchase the home does title actually transfer to you? Is it a mortgage or a deed of trust?  Note that a lease option is not a wrap.  You are leasing it, and not yet buying it.  Those are two entirely different things. 

There is more that goes into qualifying for a loan than just your credit score.  You need work history also, and you need to make the right amount of money.  Go talk to a lender.  They will have an honest conversation with you about where your financially and what you need to do to qualify for that loan. 

Depreciation is a benefit of investing, it shouldn’t be a deciding factor for investing.  There’s are a few factors that go into depreciation, and there can be variation based on your income sources.  I would recommend talking to your CPA.