All Forum Posts by: Cathy T.

Thank you all for the quick responses...

Jd Martin...you put into words exactly what I was wondering about...thank you. "Why give someone with no real or stable income legal rights to the property?" 

I do have a "no long term visitors" clause in my lease, which he signed. I could enforce that, if it was ever needed. But can I (or should I) ignore that clause to allow him to have the girlfriend move in? I can't say I did not know she is there...I live next door!

He is an excellent tenant, and I want to keep him long term and happy. But he has a new girlfriend, and wants to move her in. She filled out an application and I did an online background/credit check. The good news is that she is not a terrorist, has no evictions, has no criminal history. The bad news is that she would never qualify financially...I can give details if anyone needs them, but for the moment let's just say that she is very young and has already done damage to her credit report, AND she was unemployed when she filled out the application. (I think she has part-time work now.)

I was going to have them sign a new lease, with her on it. But frankly I am wondering if that is to my benefit? Opinions, anyone? If it matters, this is a duplex in New Hampshire, and I live in the other half. Thank you.

Its a digital "book on tape"...just the audio version. No actual book, or jacket. I did contact the company that made it, but they just replied that the CD is not available with the audio version. Still, maybe if I can find a printed version at the library I might be able to do something along that line.

Thanks for the idea.

Hi!

I bought the audio version of "the Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller from Audible recently. I am finding it to be very informative, but the narrator keeps referring to diagrams and work sheets on the "bonus CD"....well, the audio version did not come with a CD.

Does anyone out there in BP land have a bonus CD to this book that I could buy for a reasonable amount, plus shipping? I have checked eBay several times, with no luck.

Thank you....

Mark, thank you for the welcome!

I am, however, wondering if I did not include enough information, or maybe no one has any advice for me? 

Ok...here goes. My first post on BP although I have been lurking for a while.

Eight months ago a bought my first ever property, a duplex. As required by FHA, I am living in one of the units. My original intention was to live here for several years, rent out the other unit, and eventually save enough to buy my next property and keep this one to rent out both halves. But, I feel the need to accelerate this now. I love the house, but I need fewer neighbors and enough land for a clothes line!

I spoke to my mortgage broker three days ago, and was given some unpleasant news. She says a whole slew of brand new FHA regulations just came into play...including one that says if I rearrange my current FHA into a conventional loan in order to get a new FHA on another property, that the new property has to be 100 miles away from the first. Has anyone else run into this?

She did mention that I could get a duplex with a partner and each of us would "only" need 10% down, or consider getting a SFH and need only 2% down. A SFH has no appeal to me...I want a tenant to help pay my mortgage! A duplex is ok, but with a partner on the other side paying their mortgage, I still don't have anyone helping to pay mine.

I do have a friend (and former roommate) who has 15 years of equity in her SFH. She wants to sell it, and we are considering buying a duplex together so that we can share our assets (lawn mower, washer/dryer, etc.) as we did when we lived together. She is self-employed (her own business) but makes very little money on paper. Between the two of us, I think we should be able to combine our assets (her equity, my stable employment, both of us with good credit) into the ability to buy a property. I just don't know the best way to go about it. I don't know enough to know what I don't know.

Can anyone suggest something I should look into? I have two "next steps" planned, one of which is to meet with a realtor who specializes in investment properties...very much looking forward to that. The other step is to talk to another mortgage broker at Wells Fargo...I found mention on this site of a possible 2% down mortgage on duplexes offered by them....might be just smoke and rumors, but I want to check it out.

Any suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks for reading all of that!