All Forum Posts by: Adam Bontrager

We use Home Depot for the most of our material purchases.  Get a Pro account started if you have the volume to do that.  The Pro Desk is very comfortable working with investors and they are always very helpful.  We have our contractors pick up materials directly from Home Depot.  Anytime a contractor wants to purchase something on our pro account they simply give the Pro Desk our phone number and we get a call for approval of the purchase and payment.  It's very handy.

All Pro accounts receive a discount on materials but probably the best thing is their ProXtra online dashboard.  With ProXtra you can log in online and view all of the transactions you've made on your account.  You can search based on property address (to see how much you've paid for materials on a specific property), a specific date range, and various other options.  A very nice tool that saves us a lot of time and headache.

Can anyone tell me what kind of interest rates they've gotten through fannie/freddie or FHA in the past few months? I'm thinking right around 4% since it's an investment property versus a owner occupied home (except for the FHA option) but don't know if that's realistic. The loan officer I spoke with wasn't too forthcoming with rate information.

I am looking into purchasing my first long-term, buy and hold rental property (my dad currently owns 3 units but this is the first I will be involved in).  Just looking into some suggestions on the financing.  I am considering several multifamily properties in the Warren/Niles, OH area (approx. 50k - 100k).  

I have about 10k available for a down payment.  What are some of the options other investors have used?

I talked to the local credit union where I am a member.  The loan officer discussed two options - either get the loan through Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac or go more of the commercial loan route.  I'm thinking the interest rate would be lower on the Fannie/Freddie option.  I believe the benefit of the commercial is that they are focused more on the cash flow of the property rather than my W-2 income.  

Overall, I'm just curious about what other first time investors have used for buy and hold properties.  Let me know your suggestions.

Hi Mark,

You might want to check out Smartland.  I'm an aspiring real estate investor and have started working at Smartland recently in the accounting department in the hopes to learn the ins and outs of the industry.  We've rehabbed 100+ houses in the Cleveland area (both our own properties and properties for other investors).  You can check us out at smartland.com.  Give us a call at 440-374-8403 and ask for Steven Gesis.  If you're interested, I would be willing to personally speak to Steve on your behalf, as well.  Best of luck to you!

Adam Bontrager