All Forum Posts by: William Sing

Hey Spencer, 

You would need to dive into Zillow's API (https://www.zillow.com/howto/a...) in order to get the zestimates. These are not always accurate but it is up to you. I recommend using zapier to connect things or something of that nature if you are not as tech-savvy. 

Hope this helps a little bit! Feel free to call me if you have any other questions. I'm a huge fan of automating things myself. 

Hey Nina! I highly recommend reading the long-distance real estate investing book. A lot of the general concepts are good to know. Also, DM me if you want a link to the questions I asked people when trying to figure out the right people for myself!

Hey Felix, 

Congrats on the first house and the newborn. It is an exciting time for you and your wife!

I'm doing something similar right now (in the process of getting the HELOC). I decided to do the HELOC since it is a lot more flexible and even though rates might get high. I chose Keybank since they have a really good HELOC with it being pretty close to the prime rate (the rate that the federal reserve sets).

Overall it offers a lot more flexibility than the Home Equity Loan and if when do hit a recession, those rates will most likely go down which means you may be holding a loan with a higher interest rate. You can also use part of the HELOC amount if needed. You might be able to save up the rest of the for the next downpayment and not need to use as much of the HELOC or use it for emergency situations.

Just some thoughts. Take them or leave them but hope it helps :)

You usually look at gross income since net income is much harder to figure out vs just getting paystubs. 

Hey Christian! Welcome! I highly recommend looking into investor lab and the local REIA if you are looking for more connections.

Hey Randy! 

Nice job making the first steps! I usually use rentometer as an initial check for long-term rentals. If you dive into STR just make sure to look at local laws around it. Airbnb will be putting in some new rules that might make things harder. STRs usually have a little more upfront cost (furniture, nice photos, etc) as well but you can checkout AirDNA to get a rough idea of how much you might make in a month.

As for looking over your numbers the 4.5% seems like a pretty low-interest rate and might want to check with your lender on that. Also, depending on the age of the home you might want to put a bit more into maintenance/capex to be a bit more conservative. If the current tenants have thier garbage covered by rent you will probably need to up that initial number if you are taking on their lease. 

Hope this helps!

Hey Donald! The main reason 203k loans are difficult for contractors is that the contractors usually have to deal with a lot of paperwork and the contractor usually needs to dip into their own funds initially to get the project going and needs to have enough working capital to make the project move. There are not a lot out there. Even in Portland, we have only a 2-3 good ones. 

Check out this website to find some more in your area or areas around you! https://203kcontractors.com/co...

The sale would be recorded with the county (at least here in Oregon that is the normal process). The tax rate here is not determined by the recent sale price but by any permits/improvements that are made when a permit is taken out. 

You can call the county and check with their specific way of determining the tax rate. 

Since you are looking to renovate/refi you could conservatively use the higher tax rate. Banks/appraisers usually don't communicate with the county so they don't automatically bump the tax rate if you do decide to refi. I'd talk to a couple of lenders to double-check but hopefully, that helps you!

Btw great job getting a seller financing deal!

Hey there! Congrats on such a great opportunity. 

A HELOC might be a good option to pull out the capital. You will occur the fees on it, but depending on the estimated returns might be a good option. Check out Key Bank since they have a great option for that.

Raising private money (friends and family) might be a good second option as well. There is a BiggerPockets book on this that would be good to check out. 

Hope that helps!

Hey Angel, if you attach the link to it we can take a look!