All Forum Posts by: Bram Spiero

Come one Vernard, you can't actually expect to be spoon fed the answer without any kind of effort on your part, can you?

Have you read the Ultimate Beginners Guide?

@Austin Edwards - Welcome to BP.

What kind of law do you practice?

Have you given any thought to what you are trying to achieve with your RE investing?

Best of luck to you!

-Bram

P.S. By adding a picture to your bio, you'll find you'll have greater success in interacting with other people here on BP.

@Chuck A.

Mortgages work differently if the home is meant as your primary residence or as an investment property. Usually you are required to live in a property for 6-12 months after purchase for it to be considered a primary residence. Check with your lender what their particular requirements are. 

If you don't move in, you'll be in breach of your loan agreement. Just don't go there.

2nd, always get a 30 year loan, even if you intend to pay it down in less. This way you keep your DTI (Debt to Income) ratio down and available for additional purchases.

Talking to my loan officer the other day, we were both surprised to discover that the secondary market is now supporting as little as 15% down payment on an SFH investment property.

Ask your loan officer to check if he can get such a loan approved. This particular local bank may have a different overlay on loans and not approve what the market is allowing.

Mortgage on the home, 30 year loan on the cheap! He can always pay back faster, if he wants

@Account Closed - Get your hands on a deal analysis calculator, there are one's here on BP, and then get on the MLS and look at every single thing for sale in your target market. You're almost guaranteed not to find a deal this way, but it will give you a great education on your market. Start with Paterson, even if you don't intend to invest there, as you have the added advantage of knowing your town. Try to match up what your research shows you and what you know or thought you know about your town.

Going through the effort of analyzing lots of properties will also help you with figuring out what your own criteria are and what you are looking for in investing.

Let me know if you need help with anything, I'm just across the river.

If you are going to get money as a gift to pay for all\part of the down payment, best to transfer and age it in your account for at least 3 months, otherwise you'll need to provide all sorts of letters explaining where the money came from and that it is in fact a gift and not a loan.

Lenders will look at your overall debt, credit cards, car loans, student loans, etc when deciding to approve your loan. Keeping these down is more important than showing a pattern of saving.

All of the above.

You need to scour the MLS in order to educate yourself in the market. You might not buy from there, but your customers will.

Sign up to turn-key providers email lists, more education there, tearing those puffed up pro-forma's apart and from time to time, a deal does make it through.

Go to REIA's, know what you are looking for and tell whomever will listen.

Help people out without asking for something in return, let them know what you are working on and let them pay you back when they run into something that reminds them of you.

Welcome aboard @Jimmy Holman. I drove through your neck of the woods a couple of months ago when I took a round about route from Columbia to Nashville.

What are you looking to learn?

If you're going to flip houses, you'll need to learn to analyze real estate deals.

Best of luck to you.

@Carlos Rodrigues - DM me, I have a loan officer I like working with. He'll tell you straight up if you are likely to get qualified or not and more importantly why not and what you can do to address  lender's concerns.

This is enough information to decide that it's worth your while to look into this deal.

Now you need to dig into the details.

Get copies of the leases, find out what market rent is. Find comps for the building. Verify taxes, insurance. Talk to a mortgage broker, etc.

Good luck!