All Forum Posts by: Taylor Fender

If I were you I would try connecting with an agent in your area. Start by building a team. It would be beneficial to do some research and find a good agent that you feel comfortable dealing with. Good agents will be motivated to find you the deal you are looking for. 

Be cautious and do not get emotional when purchasing. If you get emotional, chances are you will be much more likely to pay too much. Stick to your numbers and do not be afraid to walk away. I did my first (and only) house hack last year. Although it is still profitable and turned out to be a good property so far, I probably paid too much because I wanted to jump into real estate SOOO bad. 

Another place to start could be a real estate group in your area. Go to a meeting and shake some hands and ask questions. 

good luck!!

I purchased a duplex in NC in October of last year using a FHA loan. I am living in one side and have a great tenant in the other. The appraisal when I purchased came in at $100K and I paid $89K. My mortgage is currently at about $86K. My loan is a 30 yr. fixed @ 4%. I am making extra payments currently and intend on having it paid off in less than half of the 30 yrs. I was told by the mortgage professional when I assumed this mortgage that the PMI ($60 per month) would drop when my LTV was 80%, but later found out that under an FHA this is not the case. Should I make an attempt at a refinance in hopes to lower my rate below 4% and drop the PMI or just ride this one out? The more I research refinancing the more I fall into "information overload" mode.

@Christopher Telles  

I checked out the mapping for the county the property is in using an online feature on their website.  I can click on any parcel around the property and get information including who owns it, but when clicking on the road, which is mapped as a separate parcel, I get "no features found"

What does this tell me?  The road is its own parcel, but there is no information on it. 

Well it is a named road with about 4 homes on it.  It looks more like a long driveway but there are multiple properties using it.

I am currently trying to put an offer in on a duplex in NC. This will be my first purchase so I am trying to tie up all the foreseeable problems before i offer so i can make sure the offer is to my advantage. I am going with a live in duplex using an FHA loan. The problem is that there is no road Maintenance agreement for the 200 yard long (give or take) gravel drive. I will not be able to get any zero down financing unless there is one on file. Any suggestions? My only though is to put in the offer as a contingency that the seller have this done.

Any other ideas on how i could make this work?

Thanks @David Sugg

 What are your thoughts on a modular duplex?  Do you have any suggestions/thoughts on this approach.  I should be able to make the numbers work.

I am just starting out, trying to acquire my first property. I have decided to go with the house hacking strategy. Last weekend while at a 4th of July party, I was bouncing my ideas off a few friends that had made some big money of real estate before the market crash, but no longer participate. He told me that I should look into modular duplexes. I did not even know these were in existence. I started researching them and they do not appear to be a bad idea for my market. I am not in the best market, so I will be relocating to about 25 minutes away to start my investing. I have estimated my annual ROI on this property to be around 7.5% - 8.5%. My thoughts are to accept a slightly lower ROI than desired in return for less headache, because I would own a new property that would not need any upfits for years to come. If this is successful, I would then repeat this process, owning 4 units, 2 of which will be new and 2 that are nearly new. Is this a solid strategy?

Robin Secord Greg Saunders Thanks for the input. I would rather go with a buy and hold model but I am not for sure. At this point I believe I am still a few months of planning away from taking the dive. I want to develop a portfolio of real estate, but my hours invested will need to be limited for my first year or so. I work full time and am enrolled part time in a masters program of accounting. I go to class twice per week in the evenings. My free time is very limited for a while longer, but I want to jump in and build equity for the long haul. I feel like I could handle one tenant at the moment, but more could make other things suffer, or even worse, lead to my deals not working out well. I guess my first step needs to be business planning and market research. I am familiar with planning a business, but have no clue on how to conduct research to arrive at "is this a profitable market". Any advice on how/where to conduct my market research? Being in accounting I am used to numbers. Where can I find statistics and what statistics should I look for? Again, thanks to all who have offered advice. BP has been great already.

Awesome.  I will ask some people I trust and see if I can get some good ones.  I appreciate all the input so far and look forward to learning more.  

@Josh Mitchell@Troy Gravett .  I really like both of these ideas.  I may have to go with less units.  If I currently had the working capital I would for sure try to go with more units, but I am not quite there yet.  I am thinking a good duplex will be my best option here.  I should be able to find one in my budget.  Another issue that makes me hesitate is trying to develop good working relationships with contractors, plumbers, electricians, etc.  I definitely have the resources in my area to find trustworthy individuals, but do not currently have them on hand.  I have been told that a lot of risk lies in the utilities and maintenance.  How do you guys go about linking up with and developing professional relationships with these individuals?  Sorry if this is an extremely rookie question.