All Forum Posts by: Vincent Pirrone

@Michael Ealy that is really amazing advice. I will definitely look into all of those options. Thank you for taking the time to reply! Thank you!

@Amanda G. That is really great advice. Thank you so much!

@Brett Baginski that is really awesome advice! Thank you for your support!

@Nathan G. That is actually an area I have been thinking about recently. It seems to be a really good investment that can yield a win pretty quickly and it's not that hard financially to get into.

@Taylor Hudgins Thank you so much for your advice and awesome support!

@Abel Curiel

That is awesome advice. Thank you for replying and giving me some advice and support. That really helps. Thanks!

I've been here listening and reading things on BiggerPockets for a few years now.

In December 2018 I finally decided to pull the trigger and buy my first house. I bought the house with the intention of turning it into a duplex and living in half of it. I was successful in that.

I also refinanced it to get my mortgage payment lower. And now I only contribute about $200 towards the mortgage and I cover all of the utilities.

And from there I thought I was good. Took a step back to admire my work. I was pretty proud.

And then I realized that I screwed myself (can I say that on here?).

First, I bought a house that appraised at the value that I bought it. Zero Equity. Terrible.

Second, at the time I was refinancing my house, my car died completely so in order to afford the car I had to combine all of my credit card debt into a personal loan to raise my credit.

Now, I have a Mortgage, Personal Loan, Car Loan, and Student Loans. My debt to income ratio is about 43% (or 35% with my tenant). And, according to the bank I only have 7% equity (Zillow and Redfin show me at 15%) in my house, currently.

Basically, moving forward with investments using this house, is a bust.

So I gave up. Had an anxiety attack. No hope.

I started scrambling to start other side businesses to make enough money for another down payment and repair costs. My goal was to get an extra 30k. Fast.

I started side business after side business. Trying to make that extra buck. But, they all failed. Just reinforcing my draw towards failure. I was starting to really give up. But I always have my heart set on escaping this rat race.

So I kept working, every chance I got. And then boom. Another mental breakdown. (Actually, happened last night).

But last night, I also had the truth thrown at me by some loved ones. I work too hard. I have really high expectations of myself. And, I'm just generally too hard on myself and don't give myself credit for what I have accomplished.

So, I decided to take a step back and regroup.

I'm only paying $200 plus utilities for my housing. That's pretty phenomenal.

I have a great work ethic. Sometimes a little too hardcore.

I understand the ins and outside of basic real estate. Not many people my age do.

My current house is a dead end in terms of investing. But one day it will be my greatest asset.

I have decided to become more serious about real estate and learn how to take hold of my situation and make it work for me. I will be attending local groups, talking to people, learning how they invest and start gathering new ideas that I might be able to use. Sometimes you just have to force yourself to take a step back and see where you're at, what you have accomplished, and where you can go from here.

If anyone has any comments or advice, I would love to hear from you. Thank you.

I've been here listening and reading things on BiggerPockets for a few years now.

In December 2018 I finally decided to pull the trigger and buy my first house. I bought the house with the intention of turning it into a duplex and living in half of it. I was successful in that.

I also refinanced it to get my mortgage payment lower. And now I only contribute about $200 towards the mortgage and I cover all of the utilities.

And from there I thought I was good. Took a step back to admire my work. I was pretty proud.

And then I realized that I screwed myself (can I say that on here?).

First, I bought a house that appraised at the value that I bought it. Zero Equity. Terrible.

Second, at the time I was refinancing my house, my car died completely so in order to afford the car I had to combine all of my credit card debt into a personal loan to raise my credit.

Now, I have a Mortgage, Personal Loan, Car Loan, and Student Loans. My debt to income ratio is about 43% (or 35% with my tenant). And, according to the bank I only have 7% equity (Zillow and Redfin show me at 15%) in my house, currently.

Basically, moving forward with investments using this house, is a bust.

So I gave up. Had an anxiety attack. No hope.

I started scrambling to start other side businesses to make enough money for another down payment and repair costs. My goal was to get an extra 30k. Fast.

I started side business after side business. Trying to make that extra buck. But, they all failed. Just reinforcing my draw towards failure. I was starting to really give up. But I always have my heart set on escaping this rat race.

So I kept working, every chance I got. And then boom. Another mental breakdown. (Actually, happened last night).

But last night, I also had the truth thrown at me by some loved ones. I work too hard. I have really high expectations of myself. And, I'm just generally too hard on myself and don't give myself credit for what I have accomplished.

So, I decided to take a step back and regroup.

I'm only paying $200 plus utilities for my housing. That's pretty phenomenal.

I have a great work ethic. Sometimes a little too hardcore.

I understand the ins and outside of basic real estate. Not many people my age do.

My current house is a dead end in terms of investing. But one day it will be my greatest asset.

I have decided to become more serious about real estate and learn how to take hold of my situation and make it work for me. I will be attending local groups, talking to people, learning how they invest and start gathering new ideas that I might be able to use. Sometimes you just have to force yourself to take a step back and see where you're at, what you have accomplished, and where you can go from here.

If anyone has any comments or advice, I would love to hear from you. Thank you.

@Tamara Deering

Thank you for your advice! That is a great idea.

Alright, I have a bit of a problem. I dont know where to go from here. I want to try to get into a BRRRR property. I currently live in a house with a basement that I converted into two units and i currently live in one. The other unit pays all of my mortgage except for about $200 per month. I just refinanced into a lower interest rate but still fha, so now my new mortgage is for $218,989 and on Redfin my house is said to be worth about $258,977. So, two things...

1. Should I get another single family house? I am looking at some houses today that could easily be turned into a duplex like I currently have and move into to take advantage of a low down payment, but the problem is that I was going to try to get a HELOC on my current house for 10k to cover the down payment, but the bank I talked to said the minimum they can do a line of credit for is 15k and my house doesnt have enough equity to let me pull out 15k at 90% ltv. So kinda at a dead end since I dont have 10k for a down payment any other way.

2. Should I build a guest house? I got lucky on my first deal that I'm in because its actually zoned to have two buildings on it. I have already talked to the zoning department for my area and confirmed that I can build a "guest house" if I have no intention to rent it out (but of course I do). So the construction costs for a 700sqft 2bd 1ba guest house would be about 75k and I talked to a bank about a construction loan and they said they can loan me up to 85% of the current value of the property + the construction costs. So that would be (258,977 + 75,000) × 85% = $283,880 So subtracting out my current mortgage ($218,989) and the construction costs (75,000) that leaves me short $10,109 so I would have to get an extra personal loan for 10k (the same 10k problem in the 1st part of this post) And if I did do this, after everything is set and done, I would need the property to appraise at least 327k in order to repay everything if I got a 90% ltv HELOC. Also, I wouldn't have enough to buy my next property after that either...

So as you can tell I am in a bit of a predicament. Any knowledge and advice would be very helpful. Please let me know if you have any ideas on what I should do. Thanks!