All Forum Posts by: Marvin P.

Peer-to-peer lending seems interesting. Can this loan be rolled into a refinance once the dust settles?

I've put in an offer for a home in Burbank (suburb of L.A.) that was the being sought after by many investors. It is one of the cheaper homes in Burbank and is somewhat of a blight to the neighborhood. I plan on remodeling and living at this house with my family for a while (10 years plus if not much more).

I am planning on putting 20% down and will have around $65-70k in to put in the remodel, however I need to demo a substandard bedroom (converted garage) and add a proper master bedroom/bath. I've worked at residential architecture firms as a project manager for over 15 years so I know the realities of remodeling a home. $70k will not go very far and I need another ± $40k to fund the addition and remodeling.

There is a house caddy corner from this one that will be a comparable to mine after the remodel and it's listed for $669k. I figure that if I invest $100k on top of the $475k sale price I should have a house that I love plus has a lot of equity built into it.

I want to get a home equity line of credit or loan but most lenders have a 80 LTV ratio. This will net me a loan of exactly zero. I know about an FHA 203k loans but it seems like ALOT of work. Is this my only option at this point?

I know that many rehabbers were interested in this property and it drives me crazy that I am so close yet so far to have a great house AND a great investment. Is there anything out there that can help me come up with the differential I need?

Dion DePaoli: My realtor says that it is a result of my earnings being lower last year than previous years and not because my loan would potentially be a jumbo loan. Since I have all of my papers in order, I think I will shop around a bit, just in case.

I am in the process of selling the home that I've been living in for the past five years and luckily will be making a profit in the sale. My wife and I want to purchase another larger house at around the same price that we will be selling the house (± $600k).

We're in the process of trying to prequalify for a loan at this price, but because our FICO score is not as high as I want (we're both at around 685) and because my earnings for 2012 were kind of low (I am self-employed and deduct a lot), the lender that I've used in the past wants 25% down as opposed to 20% AND the interest rate they are offering on a loan of $412k is 4.0%.

I am not happy about this.

Should we shop around for another lender to see if they can offer us at least either a lower down payment requirement or a lower interest rate? I can live either with a higher interest rate or 25% down but requiring both is a double whammy that I am NOT happy about.

Robert Fabian I agree. Icynene is probably the best spray in foam insulation available. It is pricey however.

Is the flexible duct as straight as possible to the outside of the house? If so, then ask the inspector where in the code is the requirement in the mechanical or building code. If you don't feel comfortable talking to him about, then go to the building department and ask to see a copy of the pertinent code. Before you push back make sure you understand what the issue at hand is.

The roof pitch is really, really strange. It's hard to tell what's going on in there. Plus the proportions of the house are a bit off. I don't think it's ugly, just a little awkward.

That strange bush in front of the house should be the first thing to go.

Dyna J. No one is offering to purchase the land yet. It's just that the realtor is testing the waters in wanting to list all three together.

I'm not in love with the idea of renting especially since rents would be more expensive than my potential mortgage payments. Plus the thought of a much bigger house has me a excited (a little bit).

Lynn M. That's exactly my thinking. I don't want to be the last man standing out here. The commercial realtor did say that he thinks that the value for all three properties would range from $1.5m to $1.8m. I don't know if those numbers make sense or not but if they're realistic, then I have minimized my loses. Thanks to a large down payment we made and the equity we have, we would have a healthy down payment.

Karen Margrave: Yes. I know that even though this is my house and I like it, that I need to think about this as a business decision. Of course it greatly affects my family. But I am strongly leaning towards selling. I'll look for a decent picture of myself to throw on BP. :-)

I received a phone call out of the blue yesterday from a commercial real estate agent for the two neighboring properties next to me. He was asking if I would be interested in selling my property along with the two others so that the three properties together would be more compelling to a developer. My neighborhood is zoned R3 (multifamily) but the three properties are single family homes.

My house is much (MUCH) nicer than the other two properties and even though my family and I are a little cramped where we live I had never thought of selling until I got the call from the realtor. He emailed me and told me that if the other two properties sold, that my property value would be "severely" reduced. While I don't believe it would be severely reduced, I'm sure the value would be affected.

I bought the house for $550k five years ago (I'm in L.A.) and upgraded a lot of things so I am pretty sure that it would comp out at around $475k in todays market.

I'm looking at stuff around the neighborhood and it seems that the supply is a little tight. I would love to move to a bigger place and with today's interest rates and prices, the mortgage would not cost much more than what I'm paying today.

Does anyone have any advise for me? I'm not in a hurry to sell and I have a little bit of equity in the house. But I would sure love for my daughters to have their own rooms and have more than one bathroom.

Yeah, I've wondered how feasible wholesaling is in Los Angeles or other markets where home prices even though they have fallen a lot are still hundreds of thousands of dollars for an average fixer upper.

I'm in the San Fernando valley but I work on the westside.