All Forum Posts by: Tina Tsysh

I believe you are talking about a cash out refinance. If you have 20% of equity in a home, you can pull it out and put it towards another property. You are eventually getting a home equity loan or an equity-credit line. 

Hey! I actually just resolved the same issue because I have student loans and currently getting pre-approved so my lender had to explain everything to me regarding student loans. Are your student loans currently in deferment or are you making payments on them?

Here are a few options:

1. You can find a contractor and ask him to look at properties for you whether it be in person or through video. However, in order for them to look at most houses that you are considering, you would have to pay them for their time. 

2. In your purchase agreement you can put a contingency basically saying that you will only move forward with the house if the numbers make sense after your contractor looks at the house. This might not work in a hot market with many bidders. 

3. Get J Scott's book on Estimating Rehab Costs. He does a great job of breaking down rehab costs based on property type, SF, etc. This can be your first step when it comes to estimating numbers. While they won't be 100% accurate, it is better to have an idea than to not know anything. 

Good luck!

Typically larger investors that run companies acquire homes at auctions because they have more capital and can take on more risk. AMH (a publicly-traded real estate company that specialized in SFR) acquires their properties at auctions but it's because they have millions of dollars and can observe more risk.

You typically don't use cap-rates with SFR. Those are designed for commercial real estate and multifamily (5+ units). If you want to know how much a house is worth, look at recently sold homes in the area.

Rent control by cities / counties typically can be found by googling it. If you are not sure, you can go on a county's website and search it there. I also don't think that there are rules regarding utility charges. Meaning I don't think that there is a law saying "____________ utility can't be charged directly to tenants." If a property has a separate meter for something, you can charge it to the tenant. 

When my mom was buying a rental property a few years back she overpaid $5,000 because the bidding was so competitive. Fast forward a few years to today, the property cash flows well and it appreciated over 30%. Looking back she does not regret overpaying for the house. At first it might seem "wrong" to be paying more for something that's worth less. However, if you plan to be in the game for the long run, 10 years into the future you are not going to remember that you overpaid a few thousand for a property because it will be worth a lot more and it will cash flow much better. 

do you have anything in your purchase agreement that says anything about an appraisal coming in lower than the purchase price? Typically if you have an inspection contingency you can say that based on appraiser's inspection, you do not want to move forward due to the lower number. Are you working with a realtor?

#1. My top two must haves (not just amenities) when it comes to vacation rentals are clean sheets and clean bathrooms. If neither of those two things are clean I will try to find a different vacation rental or I won't feel comfortable at all. As far as amenities go, I would say a tv that has capability to play music on youtube and / or stream content from my phone / iPad and a microwave. 

#2. I would love to stay a rental in a gated community unless I am specifically going with a big group of friends (we wouldn't want to disturb the neighbors)

#3. I think the max drive for me is 30 minutes and that's pushing it. I typically would want to be close to places especially because I am under 25 years old and getting a rental car can be problematic. 

Hope this helps! 

Typically hard money lenders do charge a much higher rate than typical lenders. Have you thought about refinancing another rental property and put that money down on your fourplex?