All Forum Posts by: Aaron Akins

As first time STR investors, my wife and I are trying hard to nail down our CCCs before reaching out to a real estate agent in our preferred market. I'm willing to be flexible if needed, but I'd like to be as clear as possible from the start. Although we are still trying to figure our which specific city in the Smoky Mountain general area to invest, I'd like to get the opinions of this wonderful BP community.

For those successful STR investors out there, what do/would you have as your CCCs if you were in my shoes?

Is there any other advice y'all would like to offer up?

Thanks in advance!

I was just discussing this with my wife today. Seeing that an LLC is no better than good insurance, does anyone else see the benefits of an LLC? I was thinking that my wife and I would start an LLC, a management company) to self-manage our (future) STRs - that way we could justify writing off purchasing/paying for anything needed for our STRs, etc. Does anyone have experience doing similar to what I'm suggesting?

@Collin Hays

I'm curious to know what you mean by your comment? Are you suggesting (or agreeing with those who suggest) that Maggie is more desirable than Gatlinburg? 

@Salvatore Lentini

I've always been proud of the thought that I'd have my primary residence paid of before the age of 45, but then I refinanced at the age of 35, which pushed that pay off to 50 years of age. But with that cash out refi at the age of 35 I began to see how beneficial the equity in my home really is to me from an investment standpoint. So I suppose with that realization, I need to accept that doing another cash out and opting for a 30 year mortgage (thus more affordable payments) is the right direction to go. I appreciate your feedback. 

@Ryan Howell

Thanks for your input. I don't like the sound of a variable rate. Is it possible to do a cash out refi and open up the potential for a HELOC at the same time?

@Allen McGlashing

I appreciate your input; I'll likely go with a 30 year and take cash out around $165K. I just need to find some deals to invest this cash in. Leaving it in a savings account is NOT an option. 

Thanks for the compliment on the equity; I will say that it happened by chance. Buying a foreclosure during a recession didn't hurt my chances!

Hello All!

I'm needing some advice and I'm hoping to get several opinions/points of view with respect to 15yr vs 30yr and cash out refi vs HELOC on my primary residence and a decision that I'm trying to make which all ties in to my goal of investing in my first rental property.

Here are my numbers for my primary residence:

Purchase Price: $212,000 (2010 purchase)

Amount Owed: $284,898 (2019 cash out refi to pay of student debt and extra for investments)

Current Loan term length: 15 years (2020 refi to decrease interest rate)

Current interest rate: 2.375%

Estimated Home Value: $650,000+ (realtor suggested listing for $815,000)

Monthly P&I Payment: $1946

Current cash on hand for investment: $120,000

My consideration: I’m considering refinancing to a 30 year mortgage and doing a cash out that will bring my new monthly payment equal to that of my current monthly P&I. Here is what that would look like according to my lender:

Loan Amount: $450,000

Loan term length: 30 years

Interest Rate: 3.125%

Monthly P&I Payment: $1928

Cash out: $165,102

Here are some of the questions I’m asking myself:

Am I making a bad decision to change from 15yr to 30yr?

Should I take out more than

Should I keep at 15yr and just do a HELOC?

Should I refi for a 30yr and take cash out like I’ve proposed above?

Will my debt to income ratio be an issue if getting a loan for an investment property?

Should I refi for 30 year and do a HELOC instead of cash out? (This way I can have lower payments and I don't increase my debt any more which would give me a more favorable debt to income ratio.)

Primary goal: To purchase my first investment property, preferably a multi family home, within the next 12 months.

More details: My wife and I currently reside in the Boise, ID area and the market is crazy here (see my purchase price and current home value as an example) so finding a good deal around here is very hard. Over the past 18 months we have been learning about/researching real estate and have been looking for deals for the past several months. We are open to long term real estate investing, but we would need to research more and become confident in a specific area prior to doing so. Seeing that we already have $120K on hand (it’s sitting in stocks which we grew from the $70K from our 2019 cash out), I’m not sure that having the additional $165K on hand is completely necessary. There is a large possibility we might want to sell our home within the next year for a very large profit, but doing so would put us in the very tough position of finding an affordable home (less than $350K) here in the Boise area.

Any advice I could get, particularly pertaining to the questions I’m asking myself, would be so much appreciated.

Hi All...

I'm just reaching out to see if anyone knows how well Maggie Valley vacation rental properties might do. I'd figure fall and winter might be the busy season around there, but I'm wondering how many tourists flock to that area in the Spring and Summer. Any thoughts or suggestions would be great. Thanks!

I appreciate the warm welcome! Thanks! 

I'm a newbie to forum living in the Boise, Idaho area. The market is going crazy here.

I'm a pharmacist, 38 years old and I'd love to retire from pharmacy sooner than later.

I love Idaho...the Elk and upland hunting, fly fishing, etc. 

I did a cash out refi several years ago to use cash for real estate investment purposes, but my wife and I decided to hold off on real estate and dump the cash in stocks instead. I don't regret that move, but now is it's time to start thinking about real estate. 

I'm about to sell my home for about 4X more than I paid for it back in 2010 and walk away with a good chunk of cash in addition to the cash out that I grew in by investing in stocks.

So here I am. I need to find a smaller home for my family ( I assume one that will rent well one day; I'll probably do a downpayment rather than buying outright), and I'll have around $600K to use for investment purposes. 

I'm happy to make my intro. 

Let's do this!