All Forum Posts by: Brandon Weis

@Matthew Kwan Thanks Matthew! Also, the banks that did approve me told me that they could only use the rental income from the other units (75% of it) for an FHA loan, not a conventional with 5% down (which was my goal to avoid upfront PMI and have it automatically drop off at 78% LTV). Is that a national guideline or is that just more local bank conservative standards?

I just had a bank tell me that per new Fannie guidelines, the minimum down payment on a 3-4 unit is 20-25%, even if it is bought as a primary residence. Personally, I think they are wrong. I think they are just an extremely conservative bank and that is their interpretation of Fannie's guidelines.

I have already gotten approved from some other banks (credit unions), so I'm not worried, but I am curious if anyone else has run into a bank telling them they need at least a 20% down payment on 3-4 units, regardless of it being FHA or not. I truly just think this was a conservative bank/incompetent loan officer.

Getting neighbor signatures could be fantastic! My main goal was just getting their verbal support so I was confident they wouldn't show up to the hearing and voice dissent. My main goal was avoiding public voices against it. After that, I was confident we could clearly show the positives of the project to the board.

I don't have a great answer on displaying a housing shortage for your area. In most areas, and ours, it is a common opinion as rents have skyrocketed the last few years so it's an easy talking point. If you could find any news stories, that might be a place to start, or even share national housing shortage data. It just obviously won't be market specific.

On a personal rezoning I did for a house hack new-construction triplex, I was asked numerous questions about how many bushes and trees I was going to plant. And a large decision point for them to rezone it to allow 1-4 family was contingent on me living there (which should not be relevant to a project improving the community). I assured them that I "had" to live there for at least a year but didn't know where life would take me after that as I only planned on living there for the minimum term and didn't want to lie, and then thankfully one of my connections on the board, changed the conversation.

On a commercial development rezoning we had, we had to deal with racist commentary and questions about the type of person that apartments would bring to the area. Sadly, everyone has a voice and you have to be prepared for anything.

I think your idea of an executive summary is great, but make sure to include pictures. You can show a packet to the mayor of the city, and they'll focus on a 3d picture of the development rather than 10 bullet points on how it will increase affordable housing supply. 

I would even take it a step further and share that executive summary with all neighbors of the site. Mailing would help, but I'd recommend going door-to-door if you could. I've personally gone knocking door-to-door sharing development plans and have had positive reception 99% of the time. Sadly, the biggest thing is stressing that it's not section 8 housing as that seems to be the boogeyman for any homeowner. My main selling point that it would be Class A multifamily and offer some of the nicest living in the area, raising their property values. Other classic selling points are increasing housing supply in a market in need of it (assuming yours also is) and bettering the community.

You can also hear concerns/worries for the people most likely top show up to the zoning meeting and voice their dissent, so you can prepare counterarguments or talk them off the ledge.

It's great you already have relationships with members on the council, but I would check if they have to recuse themselves from voting on the issue. That was the case for us. Outside of that, I'd just say to prepare to answer the most useless questions you can think of. It's amazing how people on these voting committees single in on issues that should not stand in the way of community progress like landscaping, parking, and dog parks.

Very glad this happened after we submitted these for over 40 businesses last week!!

Hi Joe, the best step is action, but you cannot take action without knowledge. (If you have not already) read enough books on real estate to increase your knowledge base. Repetitively reading/hearing about something often leads to action, but make sure you don't get caught in the knowledge-gathering phase forever!

After you feel confident in understanding real estate as an investment vehicle, decide how you want to begin your investing journey. Once you have your strategy/goals, begin underwriting as many opportunities as you see in that realm. A lot of it might feel like wasted time, but it's just practice until you find a deal that works and you close. 

After that, just rinse and repeat. It's that easy right? 

It's also great to find a mentor that can show you the ropes (I would know very little without my mentor). But make sure you can provide them value. Someone will not just be your mentor because you asked them to.

They are ~55-60, and they actually just inherited it, so the basis was just reset. Does that get rid of any reason to do the latter things you mentioned? I'm not really following you on your last 2 ideas.

One of my friends recently asked me for advice, and I want to make sure there's not something I'm missing or a better option for him. 

He and his wife are renting a property that his parents own. They are paying $1,100 a month in rent. They are thinking they want to stay there at least 10 years, so they want to buy it and asked the best way. I confirmed that his parents had no debt on the property. 

I recommended he talk to his parents about buying the house in an installment sale and using seller financing with them. If all parties were agreeable (and would likely agree on an interest rate lower than a bank's would be), with $0 down his monthly payment would jump $300-$500, but now he would be building equity in the property.

Is there anything else I should tell him or anything I am missing?

Any asset you buy that provides income is an investment.

Whether the home in your scenario is considered an investment or not really boils down to your goals with the property, but it also doesn't really matter. What matters are your actual goals with the property. You can buy a single family home, live in it for a year, then rent it out afterwards, and that would effectively be an investment property after you moved out, but you also got the more beneficial terms of it being a primary residence loan.

You could buy a single family home and rent out bedrooms while you are living there, and that would effectively be an investment property, but again, you have the more beneficial terms of a primary residence loan.

I wouldn't get caught up so much on if a property you buy is an investment immediately so much as I would focus on what your goals are and how each purchase would be step towards your goals, whether that is house hacking or just buying investment properties you don't live in. 

Not saying it's correct, but our property management company does not require any documentation like that from owners.