All Forum Posts by: Maggie Tasseron

 Thanks for the input.  It's good to hear that I'm picking a good starting point.  And yes, I plan on doing the work myself.  My father was in construction for most of his life, and I spent almost every other weekend from the age of 10 to 17 making trips with him from our house to Home Depot; learning how to do almost everything except foundation work (we lived on a slab).  

I am eager to get the ball rolling but plan to draw out a very clear vision before executing anything.  If I had to pick ONE strategy, I think buy-and-hold is a little more in line with my goals.  Ultimately, I want a lot of small tributaries feeding a large river... and, in that metaphor, those small tributaries are rental properties.

yeah I read the post like 3 times and it still slipped past me. I do heloc's every day but HEloans very rarely. #brainfart

 And your experience is half for me of what I went through with WF. Compared to your story it wasn't that bad - more irritating than anything. Managing the loan process myself. Not very competent people as I had to call them at every turn of the loan process because of incorrect information they continued to put down after I continued to tell them what it should be. And they killed so many trees mailing me documents. I dealt with 3 people to process the loan. One was just a concerige and the one that was supposed to be the loan officer was a very young inexperienced person that didn't check emails or return calls and went out for the weekend with no follow up. After finding out what was going on I then dealt with her boss. He did all her work and all 3 just didn't see this was a problem. Ok it was as bad as yours LOL

So Union Bank, I don't think there is a local presence here in Gainesville. Has anyone dealt out of area for their HELOC? I'm still so accustomed to knowing that if I need to see a face I can pop into a local branch.

I don't think Union Bank has branches in Gainesville, but in these times of the Almighty Internet, does it really matter? After all, I dealt with BofA face to face and look where it got me!!! If you're interested in doing business with Union Bank, I would just contact them and hear what they have to say. I can't imagine them turning down a good new customer. Hope you have success with them.

I too am looking at the same options now. I just applied for a HELOC, my plan is to use some for down payment of new rental property and also to take out enough to satisfy the 6 months reserves my lender wants to see for closing. Once I have closed I will put back the reserves and start looking for more properties.

Good luck and I'll keep an eye on this tread to see how you made out.

 Why the annual fee, is that typical?

@Daria B.,

Go Gators!

I spent several years of my youth in Gainesville, FL. To answer your question, yes the interest is deductable because the loan is against your primary residence, regardless of what you use the money for. If you have a loan against an investment property you can write it off against the income from the property. Always confirm with your CPA, though.

I have a love/hate relationship with WF. I have a HELOC with them which has been good. I have two business checking accounts with them that I am in the process of moving because they no longer offer no fee business checking. And they slow rolled us so badly on a VA loan in 2010 that I wound up just financing with someone else.

If I refused to do business with every bank that upset me though I would be done in this business. Sometimes you have to just forgive and forget. Unless it is Bof A, of course, I have a hate/hate relationship with them and will never do business with those @#$% @#$%^# again! Same deal, miserable experience with a loan that drug on for years, even after I had refinanced. All I can say is keep all of your paperwork and correspondence, because they won't.

Ed

they are the same thing.

heloc = home equity line of credit.

Unless I misunderstanding something

So a renter said a light bulb in a chandelier exploded and caught on fire (I'm sure this is an exaggeration) so I did some research on the internet and sent her an email saying it's no big deal with the following explanation which I think cleared it up pretty well:

The reason is simple. Just before they burn out, incandescent bulbs get a surge of current as the tungsten filament loses its resistance just prior to burning away. That surge raises the energy going across the filament as E = IV > iV = e where I > i is the surge in current, V is the voltage across the filament. So E > e and that surge in energy converts immediately into heat energy E = Q which stresses the glass in the bulb so it pops.

If that explanation doesn't work, you can tell them that you think the building is haunted but that you've only seen this kind of activity with tenants who don't pay their rent