All Forum Posts by: Joe Edwards-Hoff

Do you think the added improvements would increase the value enough to make it worth while?

I'm trying to help out a friend. He has a 500sqft home with two bedrooms, but one technically isn't due to it not having a closet. The typical house size in his area is about 2.5 bed and 1.25 bath averaged out.

If he plans on selling the house in the future, is it worth adding a closet so that his house would technically be a 2 bed vs a 1. A final factor is that his house is so small, adding a closet internally will reduce floor space.

Hoping to qualify for HARP. Bank told us we could if we had the DTI to back it up. After posting this, I started leaning that way. I appreciate the affirmation.

Here is my scenario-

Before I really "got into" real estate investing, or the theory thereof, I bought a house in college with the help of my parents and some friends. To clarify, my dad bought the house and I have been making the payments ever since. 5 years later, I have a nice house, with a big shop and garage, but I am at 7% interest, paying $1800 a month, and I am renting it to my brother and some college kids for $1500. I get to keep the 1000sqft shop to myself, which is pretty important to me because I am a car enthusiast and make money on the side working on cars. So, I kinda justify the $300 difference by the fact that I'd have to rent a shop otherwise.

I now have a nice 3b 2ba house with my wife and son. This one I bought with some investing knowledge and my payments are less than half of what I could rent it for. Bought it bank owned.

So, my current dilemma- I am trying to decide with my parents whether it would be most wise, for investing in the long run, to refi the first house and drop the payments by about $500 a month or keep my credit open to be able to buy another house. Right now, my dad is unemployed and I would have to cosign on the refi. So basically, I figure I would be using up my purchasing power on the refi and that would probably disable me from getting another house in a year or two. My original plan was to upgrade to a larger house in a year or so and rent the one I currently live in.

What do you guys think the best option is? The first house is upsidedown right now, so selling isn't an option. And I'd still need a shop as well. Personally, I'm ok with eating "some" costs ok that first house because it is a very nice house and in the long run, I'd like keeping it. But I just don't know if it would be better to lower that payment or expand my portfolio.

Thoughts?

What if I was not planning on moving into that house for 5-10 years though? We'd probably like to buy another house first.

Here is my situation, please give me some suggestions/advice-

Wanted to buy a house in college, had a buddy who was going to go in with me, bought it because we "could afford it" and liked the place. Knew little about investing at the time.

In the end, because of our DTI, we could not qualify, but my dad, trying to help me out, bought the house in his name. Since then, my friend ended up bailing, on good terms though, and I kept making payments. I got married, moved out, and kept renting to my former roommates. Have been for the last 5 years.

Since then I've learned about investing, and knew that it wasn't the greatest investment, though I still love the house (and big shop, which I still reserve for myself).

When we got it, rates were higher and as an investment property, we got it at around 7%. We'd love to do a HARP refi, but my dad is now unemployed, so now his DTI would stop him from getting a refi.

It was suggested to me, on the forum here, that I could possibly cosign on his loan. Not even sure if I would qualify, but I might. My wife and I bought a home a year ago, with the plan on renting it out and upgrading sometime in the next year or two. I assume that if we cosigned, and wanted to get another home, that it would hurt our chances of getting financing in the future. But as of right now, we might be able to lower our payments on that other home by like $500. Which would be a huge help.

Any ideas? To what extent does us cosigning affect out future buying power? I assume it doesn't count on our DTI, as if we were making them payments, but I know that it does have negative effect. Right now, it's like I own two homes, but the financiers only know of one of them.

Again, any thoughts would be helpful. I can answer any clarifying questions if need be. We qualified for our current home on my salary along, and now my wife is working and making 1.5x what I make. So that is hopeful. Anyway, I'll quit rambling and let you guys reply....

I guess that is a possibility.

Any other ideas (just looks for all the options I can suggest to him).

So, this is a inquiry on behalf of my father.

He owns a house in the town I live in. He bought it with the intent of someday moving there and renting it to college students in the mean time.

He bough for 225k, owes around 195k @ 7% (!), and it is currently worth 175k.

So, he lost his job about a year and a half ago and is having trouble finding work. He had decent reserves and unemployment, but all that will come to an end sooner or later. Either way, he would really like to refinance that house to lower the payment, to reflect the current interest rates, but obviously has no real income, so the debt to income ratio is out of whack. I've tried explaining it all to him, but he still has a hard time understanding how he doesn't make enough money to afford a lower payment...

His credit is perfect (800+), and he has never missed a payment. He has looked into some government programs for his Fannie Mae loan which is held by Wells Fargo (or so I understand), but he does not seem to qualify for anything. The house isn't upsidedown enough to qualify for certain options and other options require that you are behind in payments.

So, does anyone have any suggestions other than selling? Although it is against his character, he has considered just missing a few payments in order to see if it opens any doors. I told him is isn't a solid approach, but he feels like maybe if he actually missed payments, Wells Fargo would consider working with him...

Again, any ideas?

(I appreciate all of your help. These are hard times in our country.)

It all started because i lived there originally and at the the time it made sense... Still has some perks... I've seen other places where one guy bailed and the othera couldn't cut it so they all bailed. Though I dont like empty rooms, Id rather not have an empty house.

Keeping it short, being Im posting this on my phone.

Got a house that has 5 college guys living in it with 5 separate leases, one per room. They each paid a $300 deposit. Two are moving out and 3 are renewing their leases. How do I go about charging the tenants who are leaving for cleaning and work done to communal areas? Prorating seems hard because I dont want to charge the other tenants twice for cleaning. Any suggestions?