All Forum Posts by: Christian Ehlers

Private money lenders are often 10%+ simple interest from what I've seen recently, but if you know them this could be lower. Just be sure you have plenty of cashflow to pay them, the mortgage, and have reserves set aside if something goes wrong. 

I would agree that if you like your work already, are advancing quickly in the field and have a good W-2 Salary then I'd suggest sticking with that a bit longer. Who knows what will happen with the economy this year and getting a commission job in real estate would likely keep you from investing in RE even longer. 

There's plenty of people that work a job not related to RE but invest on the side and I think this is a great path especially in a market like today. Some jobs you could look into would be project management, deal underwriting, and things of this nature if you really want to change up the career path.

You're in the right place! It also wouldn't hurt to go to a few investor meetups as well to meet the experienced players in your market, make friends, and bounce ideas off of them. 

House hacking is a great way to start! Depending on your comfort level and experience I'd recommend looking for a 3-4 unit first (more tenants paying you more money towards the mortgage) and you can then scale down from there (you can househack a 4 unit, then next year or two a 3 unit, and so on, it's harder to get lenders to approve you going in the other direction). 

The One Brokerage owned by david greene just rolled out better products for HELOCS on investment properties, I'd reach out to them and see what they can do. Given that you've already done two remodels, if you are confident in the numbers then I'd say go for it and use the HELOC to do the remodel. Perhaps you consider doing this one as a straight flip, to build up some capital and reserves, as opposed to keeping it as a rental? (Not sure if that was your plan or not).

Hey Paul I'd agree with the overall sentiment here that trading your current property for another one at today's prices and rates wouldn't likely be the best way to go. I'd be looking into househacking another property as others have said, ideally 3-4 units as more tenants means more people helping you pay the mortgage, and the better chances you can keep saving money, though it may be tough to find something with enough space for 5 kids. 

If you are only worried about prices I wouldn't wait on the market going down, there's too much demand and the northeast still had 7%+ property appreciation this past year, even with the rates how they are. However it is important to put yourself in a good financial position where you will have money set aside incase something happens at either property, if you are not in a comfortable spot to buy yet I would be careful not to push it, as you don't want to lose a property either. 

I'd agree with Andrew here that selling a good rental with a good rate is probably not the best idea because then you have to go find something else to buy at higher rates that most likely won't cashflow as much, and we are no longer in a quickly appreciating market in most areas either. 

I'd look to see if you can qualify again for a conventional loan, if not look into DSCR loan options (usually will require about 20-25% Down) or you can look to creative finance at that point as well like seller financing, where you don't have to conform to bank standard terms.

I think the biggest thing as a seller in this scenario is to make sure you won't need all the money for the sale before the term has ended or the balloon payment has been made. Some sellers are fine with a 30 year term or sometimes even longer with no balloon, knowing they'll like be paid off sooner than that when the buyer sells or refi's. You can also do something far shorter if the other terms work for you and the buyer as well. 

The other thing to note is tax implications based on how much income you are making from the property, so just have that conversation with your CPA before signing a purchase and sales. 

Depends on your skill set, how much time you have, and your goals.

In many cases it's more worth your time to go out and hunt for the next deal vs try to manage everything a good agent does from marketing a listing, following up with potential buyers that might just be looky-lou's, negotiating, and managing the inspections and appraisal process, and paperwork.

But if you want to grow this arm of your business this could be a good way to get started, or if you don't have many time constraints you may want to learn this so that you can better communicate with listing agents in the future. 

Another option if you want to learn is to co-list the home with an experienced agent in your office and let them earn half a commission on it, to walk you through everything you need to do, give you references for any services you need and so on. This could be the best of both worlds, there are plenty of options

Welcome! You're about to make a whole lot of friends here LOL. So many investors here looking for deals so you'll become popular quickly. Glad to have you, and let me know if you have anything in Jacksonville beach

"The Book on Managing Rental Properties" by the OG podcast host Brandon Turner. I also liked "Landlording on Auto-pilot" which had some great tips to systematize the business, save you time and more.