All Forum Posts by: Harry M.

Thank you all for the responses. This is really valuable info.
Our property has just appraised positively, so we are now on the home stretch. We close in two and half weeks. :)

Originally posted by Jon Klaus:

Welcome Harry. Do you mind sharing details on the financing for your duplex?

Not at all. It's a conventional loan through USAA, who we've used before for our personal stuff (HELOC, car insurance, H/O insurance on our main house). Interest rate is 5.125% with about $800 for points.

Really great thread!

I kind of see it in two ways. There is the more general success - you start something, and it is completed to the satisfaction of all those involved. That's the definition I'd apply to how I perform my day job. I've been doing it for a good amount of time, and became very good at it - definately a success in most people's eyes. The only problem is that passion (other than the occassional spark) has been gone for some time.
The other kind, the success which is special, to me is when you complete a step towards a goal which means a lot to you. The goal I have that means more to me than anything is to free myself from day job, so that I can spend as much time as possible with my family. I'm 40 next month, still pretty young, but you do start realising that time is finite, and I don't want to waste a second of it away from what really counts in my life. Each time we complete a step towards that, that's success to me.

Hey David, Welcome to the forum! I'm new here myself, just joined a couple of weeks ago.

Best of luck with your ventures, and by the way, that is one heck of a commute you've got going there!

Hi,
We are in the process of buying our first rental, and are shopping for the best rates for homeowners insurance.
Many of the companies we talk to want to pull our credit before they can give us an accurate quote.
So my question is - can these credit pulls hurt our score at all?
My understanding is that these are soft pulls since no new credit is being asked for, but I wanted to confirm,

Thanks in advance for any replies.
-Harry

Welcome to the forum, Dan! I'm new here too (and to REI - we're in the process of buying our first rental), just joined last week.

Best of luck!

Hey Andrew, thanks for your service to our country, and welcome to the forum. I am a newbie here too, just joined a few days ago.

I think you are smart to want to invest your money - these opportunities to start building something only come along once in a while, and it's on us to grab them.

As far as the process goes - I'm only a little bit further along myself, my wife and I are closing on our first property in July (given that the last remaining steps go smoothly). My advice is to learn everything you possibly can. This site is a fantastic resource - I wish I had found it sooner! I just started by googling "rental property", and going from site to site. I had a word pad doc, where I was taking notes with everything I learned that seemed useful. Whenever I ran into a phrase or concept I didn't understand, I'd google it and take notes. Once I started understanding some of the basics, learning more got easier. That's how we got to the point where I felt ready for us to go for it with our first property. Though I still have to ask my realtor tons of questions. I'm sure I'm driving her nuts, though she's been really patient with us!

Best of luck!

Thanks Guys, and good to meet all of you!

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys. I downloaded the spreadsheet on the deal analysis forum, and was pleased to see that it produced results quite close to my own calculations (and both have me making money :).

Peter, thanks for your response. I've read the leases, and they contain the total amounts, but not the portions. Our purchase contract does cover the deposits, but not the pro-rated rents. I will ask my realtor about these.

Thanks again for taking the time to help!