All Forum Posts by: Christopher Giannino

@matthew hewitt 

Welcome to BiggerPockets!  I'm a Hamilton native and am a realtor who works with investors.  Do you have any specific questions on the area?  Please feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to help!

Thanks!

Chris

@Brie Schmidt

Congrats on your accomplishments as well as your continued support here at BP!  One of the many things that makes BP so great is that there is people such as yourself that go out of their way daily to share their experiences via forum posts which end up helping others.  A big thank you goes out to you as well as all the other contributors!

@Kevin Coggins

I don't know your market so I'm not going to say whether you should keep or not but I just want to bring up something you might not have thought of..  Your first line of the post states, "I'm obviously going to have my own emotions attached to the decision"  so my question to you is, how would you feel if a tenant you're renting to destroys the house?  Obviously, every investor would be upset and pissed off but would it eat at you even more being that you used to live there and maybe even did a project or two in the house yourself?  My point is maybe it will hit too close to home that the potential stress it would cause is more heartache than what it's worth.  Remember investments aren't supposed to be made by emotions.  Best of luck!

What @Christopher Phillips just said is gold..  Read that 5 times if you need to 

@Jessica Freesia

So it really all depends on the agency you sign on with...  There are some brokerages that require a monthly payment usually referred to as a "desk fee."  In return, you tend to get a higher commission split.  Then there are some brokerages that require no monthly payments but in return give you less of a split.  So as you can see, it really depends.  

I recently switched from an agency where I paid a monthly fee to an agency where I don't have a monthly fee.  Part of the reason for the switch was to reduce my expenses and then the other part of the switch was to join a top producing team in the area.  

Just as a FYI.. there are other monthly/yearly costs associated with being a realtor such as marketing, continuing education and NAR dues just to name a few.

@Kyle Davis

I currently work a full time W2 job and am selling real estate "part-time" on the side.  I put part time in quotations because I feel like real estate sales is not really a part time job.  If you become an agent you'll learn it's a very demanding job.  

Anyway, when I first decided to get my real estate license it was strictly to help with my investing career.  In my eyes, the perks of holding a real estate license and investing in real estate are amazing so it just made sense.  After being an agent for a couple of months, I realized I might as well try to monetize the fact that I have my license.  Since making that decision, I've been actively prospecting to try and grow my business.  

What specific questions do you have about being an agent?   

@Jason Brown  Congrats on the first deal!!  Just wondering, why would you leave $8k in the property if you could of taken out the full amount.  I'm still learning so I apologize if I'm missing something here.

@Jason Howell

In my market there are many Cape Cod/Small Ranch type houses that are around that 700-900 sq. ft. range.  They are usually either 3/1 or 4/1 and are essentially just a kitchen, living room, bathroom and then 3 or 4 bedrooms.  

If the numbers work, I wouldn't be too concerned if the rest of the neighborhood was similar in size but where I'd have an issue is if this house was 720 sq. ft. and the rest of the neighborhood was 1,000 sq. ft. or more.  

I guess the question becomes... what's common for your area?  what are buyers or renters looking for in your area? does this fit their needs? 

@Jeff Fountain

I'm with the others here and would look to do the cash-refi.  You say that the cash refi would run you about 5.375% and although the rate is "higher" compared to what we've seen the last few years, it's still relatively low.  I have read that many investors once had mortgages of 8%, 10% or even higher.  

My thought process is in our current environment where rates are constantly going up and will most likely continue to climb, lock up as many great deals as possible.  Buy and hold is more of a long term strategy and in a few years time things might not make as much sense given the higher interest rates.  At the end of the day though, make sure your numbers make sense which I'm sure you're fully aware of.  Best of luck!

@Virginia Hedges

Since NJ is an expensive market, house hacking could be worth it even if you can't live for free but paying a fraction of your current rent/mortgage.  The savings from your reduced living expenses would catapult your money for future investments. 

A suggestion I have is when analyzing deals, run the numbers 2 ways.. One way with you living there and one way when you eventually move out.  You'll be able to see whether its worth it for you in both scenarios.  Best of luck!