All Forum Posts by: Shawn Clark

How you do it depends on your risk tolerance and the opportunity cost of your emergency fund. How much are you making on it? Either way you need the down payment. Either you borrow it and have to pay interest and make payments or you use cash.

First of all, 2.75% is awesome. Keep the money. Don’t pay it off. I’m usually a fan of no debt, but you can’t beat cheap money. You can take equity. That’s one option. I’m not sure what you’re actually asking otherwise.

I like having an LLC because it just makes accounting simpler for me. The LLC has it's own bank account and credit cards, and I use Quickbooks. That can be done without the LLC, but I have owned several companies and I prefer to have an actual company for actual businesses whenever possible.

Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:

Originally posted by @Lana Lee:

Originally posted by @Ryan Ingram:

Is both, an option? What if....your business entity owns your residence and you treat yourself exactly like a tenant. Market rent, set aside capex, the whole 9. Happy medium, or more insanity?!?!

That’s what I’ve done, and I can happily report that I am my best tenant. :) The home is consistent with my investment philosophies and other homes that I’d want to buy and hold.

 Could you please tell a little more about that. What business entity owns your primary residence. Did you set it up before buying your home or transferred the ownership after purchasing primary residence? And do you have an actual rental lease with your entity? 

Thank you

 you lose the tax free exclusion.. and are subject to depreciation recapture  .. .not sure why you would do that.

 There's a guru out there (more like a club, very well known) that teaches people to "own nothing, control everything". I bet it came from there.

Originally posted by @Ned Carey:

@Shawn Clark

Because I don't know them, I don't do business in the county. Thanks for adding them

 What??? The County is awesome. :)

Originally posted by @Ned Carey:

Property taxes are 2.38% in Baltimore City. In addition the tax assessments are high. However i would never consider property taxes alone. Despite high property taxes baltimore properties are quite profitable. 

 Why not share the county rates? Baltimore COUNTY is like half that. I thought it was 1.1 in the county, but I haven't looked recently because I don't worry much about the taxes.

To me purchasing is first about CONTROL. I want control of where I live, what I can do to it, and when I leave. Renting can always F off for those reasons, at least for me.

For many, it's also a forced savings program, since so many people can't seem to force themselves to save enough. Any person with a J-O-B should be doing the max 401(k) from day one, and even that isn't enough. Especially if there is a match. Insane to not take that money.

The only one I've considered working with, a friend and co-worker, will do 2 and 12 for me because I have some track record. I've heard from people with track records getting 8 from friends. I've also heard from a large online company that wanted to charge me like 5 and 16 or 18. I thought they were crazy!

I used to use cash for my deals. I'm struggling to make anything work with hard money right now.

Originally posted by @Julius F.:

@Shawn Clark

The VHDA loan was kind of the first thing that was offered to me. From the research I have done they talk about the benefits and good points of the loans, but there is little information regarding the requirements. As I talk with others (such as @Amy H., thanks again Amy), the finer details of different loans start to appear. At the moment I am looking to focus on just one deal, but I will surely keep that in mind once I start looking for other deals. Thanks. 

 Getting that first one is important! Good luck!

Just because it sits doesn't mean you can't get a deal or that something terrible is wrong. It's ugly. It's in a bad area. Very few buyers are looking for that. And the investors that do aren't necessarily on the MLS.