All Forum Posts by: Daniel Hsieh

Thanks. I just called different CU and they told me HELOC is based on fair market value...but since it is not owner occupied, they can't do the LOC. Do you know if any bank/CU that will do LOC for investment property?

Andrew. Do you know any bank/CU that will do LOC for investment property in San Antonio, TX?

Asking for help from experienced investors.

We are buying and rehabbing an investment property for Airbnb. It will be an all cash deal so I can minimize the financing fees (buying and refi) paid to hard money lender. I plan to pull the money out using HELOC. My rationale is that HELOC has much lower closing costs than traditional loan and hard money.

My question is would credit unions approve HELOC based on ARV or will the HELOC be based on the purchase price of the property, excluding rehab costs. If HELOC is limited up to 70-75% of the purchase price of the property, then my plan won't work as I will have way too much money stuck in the deal.

If this HELOC strategy won't make the financial sense, I guess I just need to cough up closing costs (initial purchase and refi) to the hard money lenders as all of them have programs that can refi up to 75% of ARV after I got the property renovated.

Worth asking what strategy do most cash buyers use to pull the money out? 

Thanks so much in advance.

one of the items in the inspection report for a house I am selling is

IRC 2009 N1103.2.1 Insulation. Supply ducts in attics shall be insulated to a minimum of R-8. All other ducts shall be insulated to a minimum of R-6. There are R-6 ducts installed in the attic, information should be obtained from the seller as to the specific energy rating system for the home. 

The buyer keep insisting me to change it to R8 insulation. I can't reach the builder to find out the energy rating of the home. Am I doomed to have to replace it? What kind of rebuttal or after-market certification I can get to justify that R6 insulation in my house is in deed  enough. The buyer is a construction manager by profession so obviously I need to give him something concrete to convince him otherwise. Thanks....any comments are appreciated....

Daniel 

I am selling a home and a buyer is saying my house is 4200 sqft and one 2 ton unit and one 3 ton unit is not powerful enough for the house and he wants to ask for 5k discount because of that. I am not very good at Ac quoting. Is 5k too much is swap out a 2 ton for a 3 ton unit? Is the request even reasonable?

The thing is the house is already listed in HAR which is the MLS in Houston. Everyone who wants to buy a house in this area will be able to see this listing, not just on forsalebyowner.com, Zillow and Trulia. You all think hiring a seller agent will drive more traffic/showings for this property? I guess the agent has way to approach buyer more proactively? The reason I hesitate hiring a seller's agent is that he/she will put the listing on HAR which is what I already did. There isn't any other MLS in this market to make this listing more visible, unless there is a private agent listing that is not available to the public.

Yeah. It is already flat fee listing in HAR. Just not enough traffic. 

So this is my first flip to generate some capital for real estate investment.

After finishing up with remodeling of the home, I decided to sell it myself through forsalebyowner.com so I can save agent fee and learn how to close the deal myself. While I don't think I am over pricing the home, I am also not generating enough traffic. The house has been on the market for a month and I only got 4 showings. I am a little worried that it is now past summer time and people are not looking actively as before. Should I contact a top producing real agent in my area to see if she can sell it for me or should I just drop the price to see if I can find a buyer? What I am really not sure is how much listing through an agent really help find a buyer. What do they do to drive traffic/people to see my house than what I am already doing (listed in MLS, Zillow and Trulia)

Not sure if I am impatient at this point. Listing through an agent will definitely eat up my profitability. I was thinking maybe I should drop the price further to sell it fast (more cost effective than giving up big lump sum agent fee). What do you all think?

The house is more higher end home in Houston area (390k). 

find portfolio lender if you can't find any private lender. Go to FDIC website and call all the small banks in you areas and see who will lend to you.

Found an article about cap rate which I thought was an educational read. here it is. 

http://www.creonline.com/cap-rate-formula.html