Do I have to wait till next year to invest?

Question

I own my own business and as many self employed people do, they write off as much as they can.

I've learned lenders don't like this.

My W2 is $25,000

K1 is around $11,000

Car payment is $498

Credit card #1 is $15 minimum payment

Credit card #2 is $25 minimum payment

Fiancee works for a property management company so we have our rent comped

No other debts

I currently have $26,000 saved

I want to get into a property between $118,000 and $130,000

I plan on renting it out for between 900-1100

Single family home

I will be buying out of state

My statements show between $5000-$7000 a month of income coming in. ( I'm not writing off anything anymore, besides car and rent for my business)

No lenders will lend to me I've tried 4 because my debt to income from tax return the last 2 years don't show enough ( damn self employment)

Hard money lenders on the website says declined because no rental experience and too high DTI..

What options do I have?

I don't feel like partnering.

Lumi Ispas · Answer

@Brandyn  Duff , the no rental experience can be countered by hiring a management company for a year or so and take the property over after that. The lender will be happy with the property being managed by a professional.

As we are only in February, if you did not file your 2014 taxes, you could file them not taking all those deductions. The lender will still add the last previous years together and dived by two and take the middle income.

My advice to you si that you should find a top lender in your area, one that is been in business at least 12 years, meaning that he was in the business when the "creative" way of lending was done and can run numbers on his calculator, not input numbers in a computer software program and see what the automatic underwriting tells him.

That lender will help you a lot!

Kevin Nichols · Answer

@Brandyn  Duff I have the same issue.  I own a web design firm and try to keep my W2's low.  In 2012, I sold a mobile app for a nice sum. So, last year I went to get pre-approved for my 1st investment property.

Unfortunately our DTI was too large. We had recently refi'ed our primary home to a 10 year mortgage and my wife is a school teacher.

I ended up finding a partner who could get the mortgages and I backed the LLC partnership 75/25. That was a good option for me. My partner is hands on and we do a lot of the rehab ourselves.

This year, I was able to secure a line of credit that is backed by my investment portfolio. So I can make cash offers and pay the LOC at a prime minus 0.25%, with no mortgage fees.

Other options are to pitch owner financing. I just sold a small office condo and financed the whole deal. The buyer was happy she didn't have to pay all the mortgage fees and I've got a decent passive income. Some owners are open to that.

Nick Patterson · Answer

Get a multi-family property of 5+ units

Banks will lend based on building cash flow not yourself

Now is the time to always buy, as long as the numbers work

Brandon Duff · Answer

thanks @Lumi Ispas, I'll have to find one. Unfortunately I already filed my taxes, and my accountany doesn't recommend amending them.

@Nathan Richmond Ill have to go buy it asap.

Mark Masiel · Answer

Is this hard to attain if you don't have any rental or investment experience? Also, if you decided to get a 5+ multi family could you keep one unit open for yourself or does that change the loan process in any way?

Nathan Richmond · Answer

@Brandyn  Duff Check out Brandon's new book on creative financing.  It's only like $9.99 for the kindle.  It's an excellent read with a lot of real life scenarios.  It also references other places for me information.  It's definitely worth reading for a new investor.

Brandon Duff · Answer

Would love to learn more about creative financing

Robert Sepulveda · Answer

Looks like from your basic numbers, you should still qualify for about a $900/mo PITI investment property. However, you're not including your current housing costs which is what I assume is killing your dti.

You'd have an option for hard money that takes into consideration the after repair value (ARV) you'd use if you found a fixer upper. This can usually get you more than 65% of the purchase price. So hard money groups will let you put 10 to 20% down of the purchase price up to 65% of the arv. That's the only way to put less money down with hard money.

Your other option are portfolios for investment properties that only consider the potential income and expenses of the property you're buying for rental. Usually you're going to max out at 65% of the purchase price, but you'll qualify on the merits of the property itself.

Neil Aggarwal · Answer

You can also look at private money sources near you.  Some of them will lend against the property value and not your income.

Do I have to wait till next year to invest?

Most Popular Reply