All Forum Posts by: Ankit Garg

Wanted to get some thoughts from folks who have invested in Condos in Huntsville. I am looking at purchasing a 2 bed/2bath condo in 35806 zipcode which seems like a good location. 

Questions I have

1. Is the market for condos good in this zipcode? Lets say I buy it would it be easy for me to sell it later?

2. What are financing considerations? Do banks easily finance condos?

3. What are the key questions I should ask to the HOA? I know the fees and that there are no rental restrictions already.

All of the assumptions you have used for running numbers actually are quiet reasonable. The thing which may be impacting the cashflow numbers here is the mortgage payments at 4.1% interest. 

I know interest rates have gone up but I am assuming the 4.1% is with 20% down, if you got 3.5% rate with 25% down you might hit the numbers you are looking for i.e. >200 per door. Of course this also depends on your credit profile for what banks will lend you at.

Another thing I have noticed with quadplexes is that usually owner pays the trash which can be 200-400 dollars a month which impacts the returns as well but in your case doesn't look like your returns are impacted by this. 

I just paid $4400 for a 2 ton Goodman in Alabama. My HVAC person did tell me that prices have jumped for HVAC units.

Congrats @Gorden Lopes !!

@Julia Thompson My closing attorney allowed for a mobile notary due to COVID. You can push your closing attorney to allow for a mobile notary and tell them that you are not going to risk your life going into an office due to COVID. 

Good luck !!! 

@Stacey Bochenski Awesome. I am glad you were able to convince a family member. Good luck with your goals.

@Stacey Bochenski Congrats !! Huntsville is a good market. Wanted to ask you about the private money. How was your experience and would you recommend the lender?

I will take 1 mil today vs 10k a month. A quick example of how I may use it below.

Buy 5 properties worth 200k each which generate 1500 a month in cashflow which I think is doable and conservative. I would have roughly 7500/month in cash flow built. Each of those 200K properties would then appreciate year over year. 

@Anurag D. Thanks for your input. My closing attorney didn't mention anything about approved mobile notary. But yes a witness was required for the paperwork. 

Finally my closing attorney said that due to COVID we will make an exception and accept a mobile notary and witness as the alternative. So I am past this issue (yaay !!).

This was a pretty interesting Georgia experience for me. Here are a couple of learnings

1. Georgia has a rule that you have to appear in front of the attorney to sign real estate docs. Take this with a grain of salt each closing attorney has different way in which they meet this requirement. You may want to pick a closing attorney who will allow for notarized docs.

2. One of the options according to my Georgia closing attorney was to give them the Power of Attorney (POA) and someone from their office can sign docs. But since I was doing a cash out refinance Fannie Mae rule doesn't allow POA on cash out refinances. So this is a no go.

Cheers

@Julia Thompson Excellent advice. I will put my foot down with the lender and try to get them to make an exception.