All Forum Posts by: Heath Thomas Jr

If you are planning to live in the house, you will possibly qualify for an FHA or conventional renovation loan. This would probably be cheaper than hard money and allow you to put less money down.

@Patricia Miller Smartbuy is a great program. You do not necessarily need to live in the house for 5 years, but that is how you get the full forgiveness of the student loans (20% of balance each year). If you sell before then, part of your proceeds would need to pay off the balance. 

Most risk averse option is to do the cash out refi. You will sacrifice cash flow but at least know your payments wont change, plus can always refi again later if rates come back down. 

@Jeff Moore both the rising interest rates and potential cap rate expansion (as opposed to the compression we have been seeing the past 5+ years) as we head into a recession could impact values. Yes it may be a fair assumption to expect rents to continue rising but A buildings could see less demand as people are/feel poorer and dont want to commit to luxury living, and increasing unemployment could cause issues with collections for all classes of buildings. Who knows if the government would extend eviction moratoriums etc since they have precedence to do it again (and elections coming...)

Just some things to be considering as there are no guarantees multifamily continues to outperform. Obviously, if you have a strong local market presence, most if not all of these can be worked around or used to your advantage.

What are your goals? If you are looking to eventually bring in outside investors, building a track record will be very valuable so selling could be a great option. If you don't have another purchase lined up, cashing out could be a better option if you are committed to 1031 exchanging and don't have any good prospects. Now is not the time to overpay just to complete a 1031.

Sounds like you should be looking for different lenders. There is nothing inherently wrong with FHA, but it is a good to get a complete overview of all your options.

Hey @Kenyatta Donley wanted to see how this project was coming along. If you are planning to flip it, try to market it with Live Baltimore's Vacants to Value program if it is eligible as it is a great incentive to buyers and could help you squeeze a little more profit out of the flip.

I have not used his property management services, but I would recommend connecting with @Joe Norman if he works in that area.

Agreed @Sara Frank we are a preferred lender for LiveBaltimore, which has many of those down payment assistance programs. It would be immensely beneficial to not just educate the tenants but also the investor base about these programs because it is in investors best interest to have Baltimore thrive and helping lifelong Baltimoreans become homeowners would help that. Our company is starting to get that ball rolling, but we should connect on how to improve upon it and get investor buy-in.

@Sheena Schleicher yes it is. PM me if you want to discuss in more detail