All Forum Posts by: Stephanie Hardy

Oh ok. Well, l new to RE investing myself. We are in contract with our first rental property! However, I've been on BP for some time now and have read a lot of advice and have listened to many podcasts. From what I've learned, it is mentioned often about using equity in existing properties for down payments on more properties. @Brandon Turner has his BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Refinance, Rent, Repeat) strategy that he promotes a lot. Not sure how an architect career might be able to help you in real estate - does it help with construction knowledge at all? If you were able to buy low, rehab it, then refinance it at a higher appraisal value, you could take the equity gained from there and do it over and over again, theoretically. Maybe someone else is able to offer any other ideas. Best of luck, though!

Hey, Cliff! I'm born and raised from Lubbock and sure miss the amazing Texan folk!

You might be able to refinance the home to get some cash out, but you most  likely will be able to only cash out up to 80% of the value of the home, keeping 20% equity in the home. A lot of lenders don't like to do cash out refis with less than that. If you are able to get the cash, you could use that for a down payment on the next home you find. I would suggest to talk to a loan person and see what you can qualify for with your credit situation. You can ask them about refinancing the home, too.

 Thank you! 

I'd like to see that list, too, if possible

@Robert Herrera We actually decided to just go through title with all the paperwork. We figured seller financing was better because it wouldn't show up on our credit and we wouldn't be tied up for future financing as much when we decide to do more, but really, now that we found out we could get financing, it might make more sense to do since we can't tell the future in what will happen with interest rates/housing prices/financing available to us/etc.

I thought with a lease option, you decide on the purchase price at that time you sign the agreement, not when they get financing. I guess that's all in how you structure the deal? We don't really want to sell the property either, though...I don't think we'd be able to sell it to really make that much of a profit after all the fees to sell a house (even though my husband is a realtor). How long to your lease options give the tenant/buyers to get financing, usually?

Ugh, this real estate stuff is much more confusing than it seems when listening and reading about it!

@Robert Herrera Thank you for the clarification. That makes a lot more sense. After speaking with a mortgage person, refinancing (or even purchasing) doesn't seem like it would be an issue to even do now which is a relief. Just don't know when we would refinance since rates are low and if they go up, that would hurt our cash flow amongst other things, so maybe we'd want to do that sooner than later. So, you normally don't have a timeline for the tenant/buyer in a lease option? What do you usually do?

What is the difference in a promissory note and filing the mortgage as a lien? Would we get the title/deed to the property in that case?

I'm currently trying to write up a purchase agreement for owner financing. The seller is my step-father-in-law with leukemia. We are doing a 5 year balloon payment. My question is, what happens if he dies before we pay him back? Do we write in the agreement we will then pay his wife (my husband's mom)? What would you suggest?

@Joe Moore Did you bring them a contract or did they already have one?

@Robert Herrera Thank you for the advice. Why wouldn't you have to do any repairs or maintenance to the property for a lease to purchase? He did suggest that, but we are self-employed and had a hard enough time getting financing for our personal property, so I don't know how it would work out being able to purchase in a few years, even. I figured if we seller financed, then we would only need to refi to get a mortgage, which should be easier than a purchase.

Our loan we are planning on having with him is that the payments are based on a 30-year loan, but the loan comes due in 5 years.

We are also putting 10% down