All Forum Posts by: James Vega

Congrats on taking action.  Just out of curiosity why Clearwater?  What attracted you to that market.  My mother and father live there. 

go on line find the property and place the bid on the  website

you could live in one of the unit and house hack for a year and then move out and still use the FHA loan

From what you described above I don't think you can use an FHA loan as FHA requires you to use the loan for your primary residence for at least one year.

Luckily we were able to make a claim on our fire policy insurance for both the floors and the lost rent while we made the repairs. It helped somewhat to offset the costs. 

It's been rented now for over a year back up at $1100/month

yeah awesome!  Crazy cat lady had been a tenant for over 6 years. I am an out of state owner due to the Navy moving us around.  Our property manager was horrible so I fired them and thought we could manage it ourselves since she was such a "great" tenant.  As soon as we took over she reduced the amount she was paying by 10% because she thought she was acting as the property manager now.  

We initially were very polite and said that would not work and wrote her emails explaining as such. She continued paying her reduced amount and then started making offers on the house to buy it as is. Her offers were rediculous the and we had no intention of selling.  After several months we continued to press for the back rent.  We should have  initiated eviction proceedings  on her the first month,  but with no property manager and no contacts  the city we were stuck.  We tried to get a property manager but none would touch  with the situation we were in, saying that we  too get her  and  then they would help.  She stopped paying in March. She finally moved out in August... 

$15k of rehab later we  have lots  lessons learned. I took 2 weeks off of work  put 20 hrs a day working on the rehab. Neighbors said she took the carpet out 2 years prior. 

Good Times

I just redid my whole sfr approx 1800 sqft with vinyl plank wood flooring. Had a 25 yr commercial grade warranty on it. The prior tenant stole/removed all the carpet from the house. I will not be putting carpet in any rental from now on.  The vinyl looks great and nicer than some laminate I've seen. If the tenant wants carpet in their bedroom or living room they can go buy an area rug.  I shouldn't have to mess with the floors in this house for over a decade.  Cost $7k

While I fully understand the calculation portion of the pre-purchase analysis to see if the deal will cash flow,  how do plan on actually accounting for the funds post purchase? Will you actually be putting the different allocations into a holding account for the property? If so do you have accounts for each category? 

If you use your VA eligibility you will have to live in one of the units in the 4 plex as the VA loan can only be used for primary residence. The rent on the other 3 units should help you "house hack"--live rent free off the other tenants payments. If you didn't want to use your VA eligibility on the property you could join Navy Federal Credit Union and they offer a zero down loan as well.

Good luck!