All Forum Posts by: Keith Miller

So what did you decide Grant? Are you still at your current job in Missoula, or have you taken the plunge?

Good call Sam. I've actually just finished up using both. About two years ago, I got a $70K HELOC on my primary residence, to put a down-payment on my backyard townhouses. Then, I just finished a cash-out refi of $165K. I'm only walking away with $97K though, because the first thing the bank did was pay off my HELOC. So you can mix and match, but with the rising interest rates, I'd lean a bit towards a refi. It all depends on what your goals are though.

Thanks for the response Dan! I'm wondering why I couldn't get credit for the roughly $2,500 I'll get from renting my primary residence once I move out. While that lease hasn't been signed yet, it's a very tight market, and I'm confident I could rent it quickly. That would improve the my cashflow, using the 75% rule, to $6,225. That gives me an extra $2,225 per month of income. But the trick is to find a bank that will count that lease that has yet to be signed. 

I'm going to reach out to a few banks that keep their loans in house, and see if they can provide more flexibility. 

Hello,

I'm running into issues with qualifying for a conventional mortgage to buy another owner occupied house here in Missoula MT, to build another backyard ADU, this strategy works great here. I'm hoping you can help me figure out how to qualify for a larger conventional mortgage, right now I can only qualify for about $450K with 5% down, which is my goal.

I work as a teacher, so I have $60K of income from that. I also have three leases bringing in a total of $5,800, balanced by only $4K of mortgages between the two properties. In addition, I can get another $2,500 from leasing my current house once we move out. So there's plenty of cash flow, but my mortgage broker is telling me that there is an issue because I was recently running those houses as Airbnbs. I was writing off all of the materials I used while adding sweat equity, so it made my tax returns look poor. As a result, he's saying he can't use any income from these properties, because it's not reflected in my tax return. All he can do is "zero out" the mortgages, which means I can only use my income  from teaching to qualify for a mortgage. 

Does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives? I'd like to do a 5% down conventional mortgage, so I can save my money for building the ADU.

I'm wondering if there are any banks that keep their owner occupied mortgages in house, so I could sidestep some of these regulations? 

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

Hey Justin,

Congrats on landing a multifamily, I'd love to chat about it at some point. Coincidentally, I've talked to three different commercial lenders in the last month, all Missoula-based. I was primarily asking them about financing ADU builds, as well as loans for multifamily. I assume they would consider a loan in Great Falls, but you'd have to double check. I'd recommend Jared Kuehn at First Security, John Horner at Opportunity Bank, and Kellie Carter at Stockmans. I'm a big fan of regional banks, hopefully one of these will be able to help you out.

Let me know if there's anything else I can assist with!

Keith

The Missoula Real Estate Meetup has three main goals.

1. Learn more about the Missoula Market

2. Make authentic connections

3. Share strategies and information. 

Thanks so much for the great turnout on Tuesday, we broke our attendance record with over 30 people! We will continue meeting outside, same as last time. I'll see you there! As always, there will be no selling of any products or services, and it's always free to attend. 

Our speaker this month will be Ryan Frey- As the experience owner of Saddle Mountain Construction, as well as Continuum Building Group, Ryan has a wealth of experience in the building industry. He is currently building several large projects in Missoula, and will discuss the current state of the Missoula market, with a focus on construction.

Hello All,

I recently finished Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold. It's a quick read, that asks you to lay out a vision for what your ideal life and business would look like in three years. Brandon Turner recommends it in about every other episode, he's the one who turned me on to it. It was a really useful book because it helped clarify my goals, and identify what I need to work on to get there. I intentionally focused on my life and my business, and not just my business. The whole point of real estate for me is to give me financial independence, so it didn't make sense to ignore my life. I've attached the link below. I highly recommend you give the book a shot and write one of your own! Link is here. 

Keith Miller

Missoula, Montana

I finished it recently, great book, I'd highly recommend it! It really helped clarify my goals. I spent the last month writing and refining it, and here is the link to it. I focused a little bit more on my life than my business, because that's the priority in my book. Here's the link- Vivid Vision

Hi Adil!

Great to hear from you! It's definitely a challenging time to be buying in Missoula, but there's still deals out there. Especially if you're willing to build an ADU like you mentioned, that's been my focus. I think it would really help to come to the Missoula Real Estate Meetup on September 21st at 6 pm at the Highlander. I'm actually presenting on ADUs and how valuable of a tool they are right now in the Missoula market. I should be able to help you identify what to look for, and how building an ADU really improves the numbers on a property. The meetup will also help connect you to the RE community in Missoula, which has helped me out a lot already.

Hope to see you there!

Hello,

I'm looking for advice for finding landlords with multiple properties, ideally those who are willing to consider seller financing, but I'll take whatever I can get. Is there anyone with experience doing this, or have advice for getting started? 

Thanks so much!