All Forum Posts by: Bryan Devitt

^^ that is destruction of private property and will land him in jail. Removing the swing and placing it on the ground would be acceptable though. I am not sure if he could pay a maintenance company to remove it and send them the bill. I doubt it because CA though. 

$40k out of pocket in the end for $242/month is not worth it to me. It might be to you, but def not to me. Even if you can refi at 80% you're still at $26k and it takes 7-9 years to get my money back. Nope. 

Because that isn't guaranteed. Every 7-10 years at or near the peak of the market people think the music will never stop and someone always misses the chair and lands on their …   Cash flow is king because it is the most reliable IMO. Even if you count in long term equity you might be in the next Detroit and in 30 years your building is worth what it was when you purchased it

As long as you are in the same industry then the 6 month rule applies. If you changed paths and went to a different industry, then you need 12 months according to my mortgage broker.

Oh yea, as to the down payment and savings, somewhere in between. If you're doing a hack (I assume so with the 3.5% option) then you don't need as much in reserve and the down payment will help you more. If you're looking at rentals then you'd need 20% down most of the time with reserve left over on top of that. I am not a broker, this is just what I have been told by my broker. 

What is your actual question? To me everything you said lead me to one conclusion, until the last sentence. Given that last sentence I see one option, screen everyone thoroughly, lease it out and make sure that the lease states they cannot bring others in to live there.

You will definitely save money, or think you did, by not hiring a GC. You will however lose time (making carrying costs go up) and get taken advantage of if you don't find honest sub contractors at every phase. If you don't know what you're doing with construction, it isn't worth the risk IMO. Hire a GC for the first few until you know what you're doing, then you can run the subs yourself if you want. Also keep in mind that a good GC has a connection of sub contractors that they trust, so it saves you time getting multiple bids for everything and hoping you picked the right ones. A lot of the time they cut the GC a discount too, so it might even be the same price to have a GC without even counting in being taken advantage of and the added carrying costs. Just make sure you get a good GC, do a lot of homework on them and don't hire one until you are 100% comfortable with them and you would be willing to hand them a blank check. Any shady GC that is good at being a crook will make you feel 90%+ comfortable but there will be this little spidy sense that makes you feel something is off, trust that. Also make sure everything is always in writing and very detailed so there are no questions if anything ends up in a dispute. 

So your current options are 

#1. Keep it as is and next time the HOA fee goes up, have to come out of pocket every month to pay to keep it. If something happens with the economy and it is tough getting a good tenant, pay for the whole thing out of pocket and as stated above, hope the HOA has been run right and you're not hit with major repair bills

#2. Sell the condo. I also believe we're at the peak now and teetering on the edge of another housing bubble that is tied to a general economy bubble but that is another discussion for a different time. So if it isn't sold soon, you could be stuck with a condo worth what you owe on it at best that has no cash flow. Use the money for a better investment or to pay down your current hack. I like paying down the current hack best because finding the next investment could take a while and if it does, you'd be spending money on interest while cash sits in the bank unused. 

#3. Refi the condo. This will make sure you have negative cash flow every month when your expenses go up and/or you extend the mortgage another 11 years. 

I personally see no good reason to hold onto it. I would fix it up as necessary to sell it and dump it ASAP

No sense in leaving it, it would only turn on if the temp fell below 50*. If it is only 8 years old though, why is it in such rough shape? It should still look almost new after that short of a time. Either way, get those utilities off your expenses! I would also get a couple more estimates, electrician's pricing is all over the board

^^ This. I carry as little CC debt as possible, I try to keep it at zero. Car loans and everything else though I don't bother with. The interest rates are so low that they're not worth paying off/down. Everything else gets reinvested/banked for reinvestment later

IFAIK you cannot get a mortgage until 4 years after the discharge date. That date is on your final paperwork that you got from court or your lawyer. Until then, you're stuck with trying to find an owner who will carry the paper, finding an investor who can get the mortgage or buying in cash. There might be another option but I can't think of any more right now