All Forum Posts by: Ash Hegde

A phone call is probably best. It's an investment of time on your part up front but you'll get to see if they actually pick up the phone or how long it takes them to call you back, how knowledgeable they are in the conversation, and build a rapport/relationship. 

There are many brokers who have lender contacts for hard money as well as conventional/DSCR for the refi portion. The lender for each step might be different but you may be able to have the same point of contact for both.

What kind of deal are you working on? Is there a title company involved? Funds normally go through an escrow account and the lender will get paid through that at closing. Several red flags here - can't speak on the phone, can't give referrals, person you have never heard of writing to you to offer 100% financing and ask for closing costs up front. 

If it's 2-4 units you can use 75% of the rents from the other units to offset your mortgage payment. You wouldn't be able to count income from renting rooms in a single family. 

@Andrew Swaim his company is called the One Brokerage. 

https://the1brokerage.com/

Good thread! Yes you can put down more than the minimum to get the numbers to work. Don't lose sight of the investment aspect when you do this, make sure the property still fits your buy box as you can always make numbers work when you put more down. 

Rehabbing a property can get you a higher appraisal even if it's for a primary residence. The difference being that you'll need to support the loan with personal income rather than rents in this case. 

If you want a low down payment option for this, look into an FHA 203k loan. You can get in as low as 3.5% of the ARV. There's additional paperwork and managing contractor work and draws so it can be a bit of a pain though!

I could help you in PA but not NC unfortunately. I have seen some national lenders around here. 

Have you shown that 20k of side income on your taxes returns the past two years? That will you give you a boost in buying power.

You have a top tier credit profile which will help and looks like you have plenty of capital for the lower down payments available to a house hack.

Sorry to hear that! DSCR will work for you in this case. Buying with cash and refinancing out later using DSCR will also work if you feel you can get a better deal with cash.

If your goal is to grow a portfolio, using a loan is usually going to be your best bet, it will free your other cash for more investments. DSCR might be the way to go as David mentioned. Is the reason you don't qualify for conventional income related or credit related? The reason I ask is these loans ignore your personal income, but will still use your credit score and history to qualify.

The missing piece to see about your DTI is the mortgage payment (including taxes, interest, HOA fees if any) of your primary residence. Your thinking may be right though, the primary mortgage, plus the payment on the HELOC draw, plus another mortgage might be too much even with rental income.

There is an easier (but more expensive) route - use your HELOC as a down payment for a hard money loan to buy and rehab a property, find a renter, then use a DSCR loan to refinance to a 30 year fixed and get that invested money back. Hard money and DSCR loans ignore your personal DTI and go off the performance of the property (after repair value for hard money and rental income for DSCR). They are riskier loans though, so they come with more fees and higher rates.

It would be worth checking with a lender to run more specific numbers and see if you can qualify for conventional, but if not these alternative loans will keep you in the game.