All Forum Posts by: Elisa Sacchetti

@Elisa Sacchetti If you house hack this, you can perform the renovations slowly over time as you live in the house. Options in this manner include interest only private lenders, credit cards at 0% interest for 12-24 months, loans on retirement/insurance plans, personal loans from banks, etc. 

You then refinance at a later date and pull some of the capital back out to pay off your original loans to private lenders, credit cards, etc.

I bought my first duplex with a private lender and did these methods for the renovations.

@Elisa Sacchetti

Hi Elisa! To make it as easy as it can get, you can get an FHA 203k loan. This is for funding the purchase of the property as well as renovations. As for restrictions to how much you can spend up to on renovations is past me. I just wanted to hand you the idea to help out. I hope you get what you're looking for!

@Elisa Sacchetti

Multifamily deals and data is available on tools like CoStar, Crexi etc.

You need a team of local professionals like property inspectors, property managers, contractors, agents etc. to ensure that you are not missing anything during the deal.

A local Investor-Agent can help shorten your learning curve and save you a lot of headaches as they tend to understand the market better.

All the best!

 what is your purpose of estimating the rent? are you trying to estimate potential or future rent? or just looking to re-rent an apartment?

the way I do it, is to see comparable rents currently being advertised, then pick a number you're comfortable with based on market rents. The response you get will give you an idea. If everyone that sees the apartment wants it, then it's probably low and if no one wants it, it's probably too high. 

@Elisa Sacchetti - Good questions, definitely talk with a good loan broker in your area. However, when it comes to being pre-approved, did you just get a job out of college? If you did, does the job expertise align with your area of study at college? Normally, loan officers can count college as 2 years of work experience and you can get pre approved on day 1 out of college as long as you have a job lined up and your finances make sense to loan on. I know a ton of people that had a house under contract weeks outta college. It's honestly a genius move. If I could go back, I would have totally done it. 

Find an FHA lender in your area, ask those questions and get prequalified. Rates will continue to fluctuate so will your qualification requirements. Getting a preapproval will tell you where you stand and what terms you'll get

@Elisa Sacchetti

Realtors aren't supposed to be posting false info --- its against the Code of Ethics for one.  Yes, people / investors don't trust Realtors either...  Your call.

Zillow and others estimates generally can't be trusted since their AI isn't good enough.  We've been saying that for a long time.  That was part of the reason their iBuyer program dramatically failed.  

That being said, I have no idea how the MLS you are looking at (remember, there are MANY MLS systems out there with overlapping coverage --- NJ has 12...) is reporting the info. Ask your agent or the seller's agent if you aren't working with your own. Better yet, look up historical rented information on similar apartments / units. Or, flip it around and imagine you were looking to rent a 2bd 2bath, what would you chose at what rent amount?

Good luck.

Don't trust the MLS data - this is what the seller and their agent think they want you to know. The automated calculators are a decent base line. Check zillow, apartments.com, craigslist, your other favorite apartment rental websites, etc for actual rates on comparable units in the area. Doesn't get any more accurate than that!