All Forum Posts by: Brendan Miller

Welcome @JD McGibney, if you haven't discovered them already, I'd highly recommend listening to the Podcasts that are available, that's where I've gotten the most knowledge from. Congrats on getting started!

@Tony Bui, a duplex would still achieve your goals if 3-units or 4-units aren't available. Also, depending on your personal/family situation, you could purchase a duplex to live in for one year, then rent it out and purchase a new one and keep that cycle going. It allows you to grow your portfolio without requiring the upfront 20% down like most investments require. It's a bit harder to do that with a family though, so there are downsides.

It's not just Chandler, it's the entire Phoenix metro area. I had property in Tempe and Gilbert and both saw huge appreciation gains for the last year alone, so much so that I recently sold my Tempe rental and plan to scale up to some small MFHs out of state. It's been really challenging finding anything locally that cash flows from an investment standpoint, especially in the SFH market since it is so competitive with multiple offers above asking with waived contingencies. It appears that a lot of it is due to the influx in people from out of state, as well as good job growth with the companies mentioned.

Hi @Tony Bui, I would say the most traditional start would be to purchase a primary home first, mainly because it requires less upfront money for the downpayment. With a SFH, you can get in as low as 3.5% with and FHA or 5% down with a traditional. With a rental property, most conventional lenders will do a minimum 15% down (requires PMI), or 20% down without PMI. Since you're looking for a primary, I would seek out a 4-unit and get both; you can live in one unit and rent out the other three, while being able to take advantage of a lower down payment utilizing an Owner Occupant loan.

@Eric Andersen pretty standard from my experience but it likely varies by lender, especially between conventional loans (Freddie/Fannie) and non-conventional (portfolio loans). Most conventional lenders will want to see 2 years of consistent rental income before they will count it as true income, and they'll use a 75% factor since there are other expenses that go along with rentals other than just the debt service amount. There are a lot of lenders on these forums, so you'll likely have one that can explain it better than I can!

Hi @Raquel Adkins, you'd include those costs under the 'Purchase Details' area within the Step 2 Purchase Info tab within the calculator. If you have a lender already then you can get their input on closing costs to help with deal underwriting. For example, my lender normally charges $1400 flat if I'm not paying points to buy down the interest rate. That area has a Down Payment line item and a Closing Cost line item, so you could include the costs there. Same with partner loan costs, you could create a custom line for it. I spend most of my time in the Rental calculator, but hopefully this helps.

Hi @Matthew Otero, I would check your state's laws specifically, however normally they'd need to have put their deposits down and sign a lease agreement in order for you to stop accepting additional application requests. Tenants are often submitting multiple applications at a time, so just because you approved their application request doesn't mean they've made a binding commitment to rent the place, they'd just be out the application fee if they didn't rent it. Might want to get NY specific input from someone BP though.

@Artur A. i'm currently actively looking in Albuquerque, and you can definitely find cash flowing duplexes anywhere from $200 - $400K depending on the location and condition. Taxes will be less than Texas, but PM is probably closer to 10%. Most of the properties are older in age, so your 4% maintenance would be light; it'd be tough to find a new building similar to your San Antonio example. If I were you, I'd search each area for duplexes and run the numbers on 5 or so properties in each market. That'll give you a decent sample size of the differences to expect.

@Erika Torres there are a lot of options available, below is an example of one https://www.nerdwallet.com/mor.... You'll want to search for a 'How Much House Can I Afford' calculator in lieu of a standard mortgage calculator. Based on your income, it'll tell you what your max house price should be, and I think this calculator uses 28% of Gross Income as the max recommended limit. Another way to look at it would be to know what your currently pay in rent per month, and then use that amount as a starting point within a mortgage calculator (for example, if you pay $1,500/month in rent, then that equates roughly to a $320K loan amount on a 30yr mortgage. Once you know your target house price, then I would shop around lenders, you can either use referrals from families and friends, or you can use online mortgage broker websites to compare rates.

Hi @Erika Torres, I'd definitely recommend getting pre-approved first, that way you know the price range of the properties you'll be looking for. Also, be cautious with the pre-approvals, in my wife and I's case, we've always been preapproved for a value that far exceeded the value that we actually wanted to spend, so first I'd understand what portion of your monthly budget you want to spend on housing, and help drive your decision of how much you want to be pre-approved for. There are a lot of first time home buyer tools available online to help you determine that value based on your families income.