All Forum Posts by: Chi Wen

thanks all - sent some PM's

Hi - i'm now mainly looking at Concord, CA (and some areas in Sacramento) for a house/duplex but even using the tool here and searching the forums I couldn't find any. Using zillow agent finder shows a lot in Concord but hard to tell whether any of them are "investor-friendly" or do any themselves. 

Does anyone have any recommendations for agents or (is it better to find someone investor-friendly but not specialized in Concord area or find a Concord agent familiar with the areas but don't invest themselves?)

thanks

Thanks for the insight on selling costs.. wow

THanks, Good to know. In that sense it is pretty much like equities then. The only risk is the 2nd order impacts like tenant losing job and moving out etc.

But if your house price drops below the loan amount - the bank doesn't issue an equivalent of a capital call or margin call? Their collateral just dropped 20% in value..

So now I see the risk on the bank side for low down payments. Granted the buyer would probably want to keep their home because the only other option is declare bankruptcy?  and the bank would firesale the house?

So we all know housing will dip/drop at some point. What happens to your equity in situations when you put down 5% vs when you put 20% down?

- Buy a 500k house and put 5% down (25k) and the next day housing prices crash and your house is now worth 400k.
- Buy a 500k house and put 20% down (100k) and the next day housing prices crash and your house is now worth 400k.

in the first case you are "underwater", correct? What does that mean exactly and what kind of real life implication does each case have assuming you keep paying your mortgage and have the same rental cashflow coming in?

I'm thinking about getting a pre-approval just to see what I can afford. But I probably won't be actually buying until end of 2021 or early 2022 because I'm still renting and have a lease that ends in Apr'22.

Here in the bay area I'm pretty sure I will get rejected for many offers so I'm thinking should I get a preapproval now and take the credit hit -  just to start browsing in my budget and then get another preapproval end of 2021 (and another credit hit)?

thanks

commenting for notifications - interested to hear as well

as a newbie myself - interested to hear what you end up doing. What kind of downpayment were you considering putting if you don't mind me asking. Trying to debate pro's con's of large vs small. thanks

I know there are different rules and personal preferences on this topic but I wanted to see what the general consensus was for my goals/objectives and the pros/cons of putting a small or large downpayment.

This would be my first house and, since I'm currently renting, it would be a place I would staying in. I'm hoping to get either a 2b/2b condo/townhouse because that's all I can afford and rent out one of the rooms.

Assuming I could afford the 20% down for a conventional mortgage, would it be smarter financially and investment-wise to try and put as less cash as possible and pay PMI or go the traditional route and pay 20% or more?

I've read a couple pro's to the 20% down is in case the market goes down and you want to sell - you're not going to be underwater. And of course your monthly payments are lower and no PMI. However the pro's of less cash down is your if the market turns sour you lose less while the bank bears most of the risk and it also frees you up with cash to potentially invest elsewhere.

But these are just from me reading and would like to hear the professional guru's opinions of which path would you take as a newbie in investing (or buying RE in general). 

thank you

thanks for sharing. will consider it an option