All Forum Posts by: Alex Nelson

Does this 20% off stack with the 15% off from the annual membership?

Hey BP, I'm strongly considering going pro soon and i have a question about the calculators that become available. I feel like i remember hearing that you can use these calculators on the go to analyze a property at any time. Is this possible? I downloaded the biggerpockets phone app but I can't seem to find where the calculators are located in the app, or if they are there at all. Does anyone know if this is a thing?  Is there a way to easily access these calculators on the go? (without lugging a laptop and wifi-hotspot around)

Thank you for any advice you can give!

@Bill Rich I was under the impression that the homestyle loan only required a down payment of 5%. I will be living in the duplex and renting out the other side. If it requires a 15% down payment, then that wold explain why I hardly see this talked about here, and would make the FHA 203(k) the obvious choice for me (starting on a limited budget)

Hello people of bigger pockets! 

I'm looking to get into real estate investing (shocker right?) and have decided that buy and hold is the way I want to go. initially i planned to get a normal FHA loan to get a duplex, but these do not allow for renovations to add equity. I've recently discovered the FHA 203(k) loan which would allow me to borrow my renovation budget to help me gain more equity in my first purchase. I also found the Homestyle® loan which is very similar. from what I understand, the homestyle® loan gives a bit more flexibility of the renovation, requires slightly higher down payment (at 5% down, this still makes for a much more affordable first buy), and allows you to end your PMI after 22% equity, which seems very attractive to me.

I want to know what you guys recommend! what are the real advantages/disadvantages to these? I feel like I haven't seen much about either of these on the BP forums and I'm wondering if there is an Achilles heel to these types of loans that I'm not seeing. I feel like the added equity would make it more than worth the slightly higher payments for the increased value on the loan. Is there more stipulations to these two loans that what I've said here? any advice would be appreciated!

I would love to hear your experience if you've used either of these two loans!

 What is this? I tried to look this up and it seems they haven't done an event since last November. Do they no longer do these? or am i looking in the wrong place?

How much is PMI usually? Is this not a part of a conventional loan?

also if i'm saving 3-5k per unit, that would be 12-20k saved just for renovations, which eats up most of my entire budget... is it impractical to try to buy a 4plex with this much capitol?

as i keep reading through the bigger pockets book on rental investing, i keep running across these sections that say "this isn't expensive and shouldn't cost more than $1000". but I've read things like this multiple times throughout this book. It's making me worried how many "extra" expenses there are that will be added on. for example the inspection, a title check, lawyer fees, and I feel like many other little things.  I'm very worried about getting in over my head and i don't want to regret anything later. is it too "overzealous" to try for a 4plex with 25k to start out?

Hey guys, newbie here. I've been doing my research and I'm positive that a househack is the way to go to for my first investment. I know I want to purchase a 4-plex on an FHA loan but I want to know what the real "catch" is here. I know with an FHA loan I will have to live in the home for at least a year, which is no problem. I also know that I'll only need to put down about 3.5% for the loan. My first question is: what other stipulations come along with an FHA loan? If i move out after a year, do i have to cover whatever the difference is from the 3.5% to the usual 20% or so of a conventional loan? are there other restrictions on the FHA loan that I should know about? (i'm already aware that you can only have 1 FHA at a time) what's the fine print that makes an FHA different from a conventional loan?

My other large concern is with budgeting. I understand that I can get a much larger house with only needing 3.5% down, however the repairs and upkeep are still going to be scaled to the larger size of the house. This means that I should set aside a significantly higher percent of my money for these compared to what i'm paying for a down payment. If i have a starting budget of $25,000, what would be a reasonable amount to set aside for the repairs/upkeep and still leave me enough to put the down payment and pay all the other costs associated with purchasing a property? My biggest fear is that I'll buy a 4-plex and then get dragged under by the expenses on a house of that size. I know I see house hacking praised as a great way to start, I just want to know how you guys navigate these expenses when starting this way with low investment capitol. I also have played with the idea of getting a turnkey 4-plex to start to avoid these expenses. Is it worth it to go this rout? Am I blowing my profits by buying a turnkey? have any of you had experience with turnkey vs "ugly fixer" properties? I just really want to avoid jumping in over my head!

Let me paint this picture for you. I've just graduated college with my masters degree and have landed a decent job in the Dallas area. I've started to realize that without much more schooling, I will never be able to make enough in my career field to make me satisfied. I've started looking into ways to build my wealth outside of my career. I'm very fortunate to not have any college debt or car loans to deal with and I have a decent amount of savings (in my opinion) of about $25,000. I'm very interested in the opportunities available in real estate and have started doing a lot of research into this subject. 

I understand that $25,000 isn't "a lot" of money to start out with, but i feel like it may be enough to put down for a loan on something. My question is what would be the best way for me to use this money to start out my Real Estate career? I'm very interested in multifamily units, however i'm not sure how practical that is with my starting capital. Should i try to find a partner to match with me and try a multifamily? should i stay by myself so i don't get taken advantage of and just try to buy a smaller single family unit? Is this amount of money even enough to start this way or are the other expenses and fees going to pull me under? and if so what do you recommend doing to get me to the point of making my first purchase? I'd like to have some decent cash flow, but i'm more interested in the building wealth through equity. I feel like this is the way i will be able to build my initial investment up to a number that will allow me to expand into a business. Is this true or am i jumping to a wrong conclusion here? Is it even worth jumping in with that low of an initial investment or should i try to save up more so i can make a bigger first purchase? Any advice is welcomed!