All Forum Posts by: Bill Hamilton

Matt, I am not trying to be harsh but a mortgage broker (a good one mind you) is exactly the way you want to go in this type of scenario. A bank can only offer the programs they have. And every bank you go to will pull your credit again. A good mortgage broker can shop your loan to numerous portfolio lenders etc, with only one credit pull. And if the mortgage broker is really talented, they will already know which lenders are likely to finance loan. Also, there is pretty good chance he won't have to be taken off the CA loan the if the ex-wife will cooperate and show that she has made 12 months payments. And that is just for a conforming loan. Many portfolio lenders might be more flexible than that. The whole point of a good mortgage broker is that they study the guidelines of lenders that don't just do Fannie and Freddie or FHA. And with any luck they develop relationships that can make getting a loan through a non conforming lender easier. Admittedly if you already have a good banking relationship with a portfolio lender, that is a good place to start. But if you don't have that relationship already, or if you get turned down, it is time to turn to a broker. Admittedly I am prejudiced as I used to be a broker and may go back to being one so feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Not permitted, especially on something like a whole new floor, can be incredibly tough. You may have to find a cash buyer. And you are probably going to have to explain to the seller that it is highly unlikely that your buyer will pay what he thinks it's worth. Overbuilt for an area means no comps and therefore an appraisal will come in low or be inaccurate.

There are far more experienced people on this forum than I and maybe they will jump in here, but looking at basic numbers I don't see that $1,100 per month in rent on a $200k property makes a reasonable profit.

It's possible you could do what is called an Escrow Holdback. You will have to call around a bit as a lot of lenders don't really like to do these but some will. In essence, you close at full price but the lender doesn't release the $29k for the roof, to the seller until the roof is completed.  

There is just, really no easy answer for this. Every market is variable. Learning how to read comparable properties and what those differences are, is somewhat of an art. But is crucial to success. An extra bedroom, bathroom, upgraded kitchen or whatever you may discuss, affects the value in different ways depending on where the property is and what it already has. If you have a four bedroom SFR, adding an additional conforming bedroom will probably have a very limited value in Denver. The same addition in Salt Lake City or Boise might make far more sense where larger families are more common. But if you have a 2/1 in Denver, adding a bedroom and bathroom can add huge value. But only if the total square footage allows for that change to still make for rational, comfortable living. And only if the neighborhood supports having that. If the house is in an area where few families live, then even the additional bedroom may cost most than it adds in value.

Wait until your tenants lease expires. Move back in. Refinance into a conforming loan as an owner occupied. Occupy for 12 months, then move on. @Upen Patel is right about the other options so contact a good mortgage broker and let them guide you through the morass.

 When I was a wholesale AE, I consistently found that a good title company was far easier and far more accurate in their closing docs than an attorney. Having mostly done deals on the west coast or in Idaho, Texas or Colorado, I always dreaded trying to complete a deal in some of the east coast states that use attorneys for closings instead. I am not sure, but I think that maybe an attorneys office simply doesn't do the volume of closings and therefore doesn't have the specialized staff that a title company does. Also I am not sure how all other states deal with this but in Colorado I think all title companies here have to be owned/run by an attorney so you still get that layer of "protection" that having an attorney provides but the attorney does not have to sign off on and review every detail.

Same here. If you are a wholesaler in Denver and actually have good deals feel free to reach out to me.

Unless it's changed in the last few years, you can have more than one FHA loan but your reason for buying a new house has to be something along the lines of having a child and the house not being large enough. Or being transferred to a new location or having to move out of area to get a new job. It cannot be used to acquire an investment property but you can retain the FHA loan on your first property and acquire a second property via FHA if the reason for needing a new loan is a (if I remember correctly) "life changing event" as mentioned above. Realistically it has to make sense to the FHA underwriter. Could be grandma needs a place to live etc, etc.

It totally depends on the market. Having rented in Denver for years at various points, I never saw a condo or house rented without a fridge. And yet when I lived in Idaho for a while, that was the norm. Strange to me but that was just the market.