All Forum Posts by: Frankie Woods

I agree with @Fred Engh.  I fixed my brother's credit using a secured credit card.  It only took 3 months to go from a 550 average to 639 (lowest) - 701 (highest), depending on the bureau.  It's really easy to do.  Dispute any errors on your credit report.  Additionally, you may be surprised about what they remove.  Transunion and equifax removed all negative reports by just giving a solid explanation.   Experian tends to be the hardest, but lenders only look at the middle score [this was a huge lesson for me].  Then build up a good history of payment pay-down.  Go get em and save your money!

@Jaysen Medhurst, yes, I understand that NOI does not include debt service. However, debt service would be included in both ROI and CoC.

My question is about investment properites purchased as primary residences for a period of time.  What is the best way to calculate a return given that you are not paying rent [someone else].  

I think the best and simplist way is to treat it as if you were renting from yourself at market rates and treat all other expenses as how you would divy them up in your lease.  Also, you probably wouldn't need to account for a property management "expense" since there is really nothing to manage.  

Thanks for helping me "think out loud".

I used Navy Federal Credit Union for my investment property HELOC. I was denied by PenFed because I had more than 4 or 5 loans. NFCU has the same loan policy, but they waived it in my case.

I'm currently at 100% utilization, and my credit score dropped by 20 points [my overall utilization is 10%].  

My real estate investment strategy over the last 10+ years has been to purchase a property everytime I move.  As a military member, I move every three years or so; hence, I have several rentals that were, at one time, my personal residence.

I've been struggling with whether or not to include my occupancy in the returns numbers. For example, if I purchase a SFR in an area, should I include the average rent I would have paid into my calculations. Additionally, which expenses should I include, if any.

Another strategy would be to only include the principal paydown and initial investment, but not include any other expenses in the calculation [unless of course I house-hacked, which to me is a no-brainer to include in the calc].  

I think the latter is the better strategy, but would love to hear feedback from the community.

Thanks for your time.

Frankie

Thank you @Florence Lee and @Ming Lim!

Access is incredible.  And it works extremely well with excel if you want to create cool graphs in the future. 

Biggerpockets offers a service.  So does Cozy.co.

Since you've lived in the property for >2 years, your capital gains are tax free when you sell. Also, since this is your primary residence, you can qualify for a HELOC for up to 100% [this is almost impossible with an investment property].

Personally, I'm a buy and hold investor. I'd rather get a HELOC and use it for the next 10 years when I need it rather than pulling the money out and not necessarily having anywhere to put it.

@Florence Lee can you pm those details as well?  I have a friend living in Toronto that wants to do the same thing!

Does anyone have experience getting approved for section 8 tenents in Los Angeles?  Does it basically just involove an inspection?