All Forum Posts by: Calvin Lin

Just closed on my new primary SFH in Cary, NC last week, 15 years at 3.625%, 0 points, Wells Fargo.

I have always liked Raleigh & Charlotte and both are on this list.  If Amazon picks Raleigh it will go nuts, keeping my fingers crossed.  :-)

I wonder how many of us would jump on an airplane the minute a final city is picked and just go on a RE buying spree?  Ha.

Zillow names the 10 hottest housing markets in the US for 2018

1. San Jose, Calif.

2. Raleigh

3. Seattle

4. Charlotte

5. San Francisco

6. Austin, Texas.

7. Denver

8. Nashville, Tenn.

9. Portland, Ore.

10. Dallas

Hi BP community, anyone noticing the 10 year US Treasury yield lately (tied to the mortgage interest rate)?  It is now breaking above 2.5% and if prediction is correct it will rise further in 2018 (steepening yield curve).  

What's your strategy with rising interest rate in 2018?  Do you wait and see or you jump in now and beat any further increase?  How will housing values hold up?

Hello BP community,

I purchased a townhouse in NC last June as an investment and found a tenant right away. At the time of purchase, my I did know that HOA had a 20% rental cap in the community and that threshold was already reached but the HOA manager we spoke to said it is not enforced. I went ahead and made the purchase and today I got a letter from HOA saying I am in violation of this policy and I have to attend a HOA board meeting next week to explain myself and/or risk a fine of $100 per day. I know this community has a lot of rentals so I am not the only person in this situation.

Questions:

1) Anyone faced a similar situation before or have any advice to give as far as what to say to the HOA?

2) My current tenants is on a month-to-month lease after the 1 year lease had expired. They are looking for a house to buy but nothing so far. So I am thinking if the HOA really pushes me to get rid of the tenants I would ask for a compromise like letting my current tenants have time to find a new place and move out, let's say 3 months. I don't think the HOA board is particularly interested in kicking my tenants out to the curb or fining me $100 per day, they want to get rid of excessive rental units in that community. What do you think of this approach? I will obviously have to stop renting this unit after that.

Thank you in advance

My sister had that happened to her in one of her million dollar properties in Tokyo Japan. A woman rented from her and then started leasing it out via AirBNB. She was upset to say the least when she found out about it. It really put her in a bad position as it was in violation of the building / HOA code not to mention city regulations. Also there is the issue of guest liability as she was not protected under this type of arrangement in case someone is injured. If you are going to do this do it the right way, get your own property or have the owner agree to it beforehand.

Great topic.  I work in finance IT for an investment bank (yes one of those that got bailed out 10 years ago) and have been there for 17 years and 25 years total in IT.  It pays well relatively speaking but it is eating away my soul on a daily basis so now I have 7 doors all in the Raleigh NC area, all cash purchases in the last couple of years.  Also own a condo in Tokyo Japan.  Hope to retire early in an year or two (I am 48 now).

I have 7 rentals in my single LLC, each rental has a $1M policy on it and the LLC has an $3M umbrellas policy to protect the other 6 units in case 1 gets sued for beyond the $1M. It's probably more than what 95% of the landlords out there carry but I sleep better with it.

Hi Shaun, yeap I use those same criteria, and of course no criminal records and no eviction records.  I use mysmartmove from Trans Union to screen tenants for the units I self-manage.