All Forum Posts by: Varun M.

@Michael H. Cook awesome post. Looking into the Shenandoah market right now. Would love to connect! Messaged you on BP 

 @Eric Winkler thank you for facilitating the update. I received an update from Delta on 17th April. The update was sent out on 6th April but I never received it so they sent it again. Things are progressing.

I wanted to share an update on my build. 

Jan 2023: Slab poured and inspection passed.

Next step - concrete blocks to be delivered and work to start going vertical. Sequence of follow ups on concrete blocks delivery since Jan 2023.

23rd Jan: First follow up response - concrete blocks will take time since it's the slowest part.

24th Feb: Second follow up response - still waiting on block delivery schedule from the vendor.

21st Mar: Third follow up response - vendor said they will have a batch of deliveries going out next week. 

28th Mar: Fourth follow up - haven't heard back.

6th Apr: Fifth follow up - haven't heard back.

@Eric Winkler would appreciate if you could help with a response. Reached out to you via email as well last week. Thank you.

 Looping in @Eric Winkler from Delta who has been responsive on requests for updates.

I completely understand. Thanks @Eric Winkler. Appreciate the prompt response!

Nice to meet you all. I am in the process of a new build with Delta in Cape Coral as well. Here is my timeline:

Dec 2021: Bought a fresh canal lot 
Dec 2021: Signed contract with Delta

Jan 2022: Permit applied

July 2022: Permit approved

Aug 2022: Mono slab process started (lot scrapped)

Jan 2023: Mono slab poured and inspection passed

@Eric Winkler nice to be connected again. We had spoken initially when I was going to start this construction. Would appreciate if you could email or preferably call me as I do have a few questions about my alternate seawall site plan and permit. It's been in the works since July 2022 (had to be resubmitted to the city) and I was told it should happen within weeks, but it's still shows as "Resubmittal required" and I haven't been able to reach anyone from the permitting department since December.

@Tim Delaney thanks, I just took a HELOC out, and I think my credit score already took a bit of a hit. Thankfully, I am using it to fund a new construction for the next 10 - 12 months so hopefully it's temporary.

Thanks all for your help. We ended up going with the HELOC to fund a new construction (instead of getting a new construction loan). Plan is to refi once the new build is done and pay off the HELOC. It's what made most sense given the investment opportunity that came our way.

@Tim Delaney we are currently approved for a HELOC of $380k (the appraisal came way lower than I had expected). We plan to use $246k for ~10 months towards the new construction, after which we will refi. Any sense on how significantly that would impact our credit score?

@Melissa Argente great info! Thank you so much. Looks like cash out refi might be the way to go once we know which property we want to buy. 

@David Kelly makes sense. Appreciate your help in exploring both options. Our current rate is quite low (2.875%) so that makes scenario analysis a bit more important for us if we are going to consider refi-ing at a higher rate.

@Johnson H. that makes us neighbors! Would love to catch up in person if you're still around. Appreciate you going through the other thread as well. I think she's open to the idea of moving to a duplex, it's just that the primary reason for considering that was to leverage the equity in our SFH, and we learned there are ways we can do that without selling (noob stuff, I know).

Honestly, with the variable (and higher) rates for HELOCs combined with that rates currently are low, I think cash out refi might make sense for us, but I think we need to chart out all scenarios given our current debt + the amount we want to pull out and see how that plays out in a cash out vs. heloc scenario. Might be the way to go about this. If we do go down the HELOC route, I think I would want to around paying down the principal alongside the interest only payments. I am reading that's the prudent way to go about HELOCs if they aren't short term. Let me know if you have thoughts.

Congrats on the 14 unit! Great stuff!! And yes, I see why cash out refi makes sense there.

Appreciate you sharing your more general thoughts on RE investing. I am surely realizing it's way more than numbers - great advice - thank you! I think worst case we should be able to pay the loan if the investment completely goes south, so from a worst case scenario perspective we should be okay. That said, whether my wife would be okay entertaining that possibility or not? That's a different story =) Thanks again!


 

Hi BP friends,

Following some great advice on this thread: https://www.biggerpockets.com/... we are looking into refinancing options to pull equity out of our primary home in SF, and use it to build our investment portfolio. That said, I have a few questions: 

(1) We're exploring both HEL vs. HELOC. I think I understand the basic differences, but any thoughts from someone who has been there done that for your primary home, on what you chose and why?

(2) Using the equity, we would ideally want to stagger buying our investments properties over 6 - 18 months (vs. all at once) At the same time, take advantage of the low interest rates in today's market. My understanding is HELOC provides the flexibility to use the line of credit on an as needed basis, but has variable interest rates. HEL, on the other hand, has fixed rates but requires us to pull out all or nothing (no flexibility in draw schedule). So trying to explore if there's a way we can get best of both worlds (flexibility of using line of credit and low / fixed interest rates).

(3) are there other considerations we should keep in mind as we go down the path of taking a HELOC / HEL loan on our primary residence? We understand the risk of putting our house down as collateral and the implications of doing so. Anything else we're missing from a future credit worthiness perspective, eligibility for future loans, etc.?

(4) any recommendations on whether we should approach corporate banks vs. credit unions? Or just go with whoever is able to offer the most suitable rates / loan terms?

(5) and finally, do you all have recommendations for loan agents / officers who can help us think through what would be the optimal path for us given our situation?

Thank you for your help!

Varun