All Forum Posts by: Daniel Sherman

@Coty Dolan

We look at properties in Ybor from time to time, and there are great opportunities. I commend you as a very out of state investor for finding a place in a great up and coming neighborhood. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out you have personal experience here, or you’re just that good. Either way, great find.

Dan

@Justin Elliott

Great job getting to where you are so fast. We bought our fix-and-flip about a year ago and are on contract for our first duplex rental, ready to close in a few weeks. It’s exciting and a bit nerve wracking at the same time, but when things make sense, they make sense. If you’re looking up our way any time, let us know. We are building great connections and are always happy to share.

Dan

We’ve been living in Tampa for almost a year and bought an off-market property in south Tampa in the Plant schools district. We’ve talked to other investors in the area and one advised us to avoid Pinellas county if the property will need any significant work due to their building department. Essentially, he said they inspect absolutely everything and are very hard to work with. Hillsborough county, where we live is much better to work with.

Greetings and salutations,

We are celebrating the closing of our refinance and officially own the property as individuals and have made it our primary residence.  This was months of work and tons of learning to get here.  I’ll do my best to make it concise without losing some of the lessons learned.  Hopefully I don’t get in trouble for some of the things I say...

We ditched the Home Style loan due to the unnecessary complexity and time delays. Instead, we went with a traditional no-cash-out conforming loan. Initially, we went will Wells Fargo since we had a pre-existing condition... I mean relationship. Back in the beginning of November, we initiated the simple refinance process with them with the express intent on closing before the first of the year. This gave them a few days shy of two months to close on a refinance with an existing customer where the LTV was 45%-55%, with us holding the majority balance. We responded to their every document request, usually within hours. Around the middle of January, and after lots of "What the hell is going on!?!?", we informed them we would be going with a different lender. We found Seth from (ask me directly) and he was awesome. His team got the loan closed in 11 business days, start to finish. Super professional, responsive and customer focused. We will certainly be working with him in the future.

So, the hard money loan is paid and closed, we are under a conventional loan and are ready for the next step.

We plan to use a HELOC to buy more properties since the home has a good deal of equity. Forgoing a market crash based on COVID, we are looking forward to finding our next deal.

Dan

I agree with Kelsey, hard money can be hard.  We bought our current primary residence through a hard money loan of $240k @ 11% for 9 months. We were paying $2k a month as interest only. We refinanced after 6 months to a conventional 30yr and haven’t looked back. We bought very low with the plan to live-and-flip over the next two years.

There are a lot of creative and good lenders out there who can help find the right loan product for you. Hard money is expensive, very short term and only a good idea if you have a quick and reliable exit strategy.

Hey Mario,

We recently did a refi with Bay-to-Bay lending.  The guy we worked with there was awesome.  We told him speed was the most important factor and he got us to closing in 11 business days.  Let me know if you want his info.

Dan

Nathaniel,

We closed on a loan with a guy at Bay-to-Bay lending last month.  He was awesome and got the loan from phone call to closed in 11 business days.  He either answered or returned calls/texts in less than 30 min.  Couldn't have been happier.  Hit me up if you want his info.  Best of luck.

Dan

@Nick C.

Great advice Nick. We’re fairly new to the area, but I can recognize them all as top-tier areas. The RE market here seems to be hotter than hell but does have some diamonds in the rough. We found one and are working hard to make it shine.

Dan

@Andrew Cummings

Welcome to BP. We've been living in south Tampa since July and have a SRF we are remodeling. We've looked for the same thing you're looking for and there are areas and opportunities. You're need to be above Kennedy or below Euclid to find something, pretty much anything under 500K. If you're looking for something that needs work, keep in mind the VA is not rehab friendly. What you buy would have to pass as a livable with all inspection failures fixed before closing. You can get up to a four unit as long as you occupy one of them, just as you planned. I'm a new investor in the area and have been building contacts for a few months. I'd be happy to share what we've learned any time. Reach out if you're interested.

Dan

@Lucas LeBlanc

What’s the date? We’d love to join.

Dan