All Forum Posts by: Gordon Wong

Thank You for all your great responses.

The house is in Nevada and i'm working and living in NY now. It was purchased 3 years ago as a owner occupied. Now my brother lives in it and pays all the bills. I would like to turn it into a rental property, not to him.
Will i need to do anything besides change the house insurance to a landlord/rental insurance? How will this affect my taxes? Will I still be deducting mortgage interest and property tax the same? Will I need to start depreciating the house? Anything else I should know would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

Will getting too many pre-approal or pre-qualification affect my credit?
I ask because they usually expire in 90 days and will need a new one after that.
Also, this property which is a short sale is requiring pre-approval through their lender even though I have one with another bank already.
So will it affect my credit if I keep getting pre-approal or pre-qualification?
Thank You

Thank You for all the great responses.

I have a home equity line of credit for up to $100,000. The deadline to take out any money is Dec 2012. All the fees have been paid for already. A little info on the line of credit. APR is .25% less than the wall street journal prime rate, which is 3.25% right now. It is adjustable every month. The max change within a year is 4%. The loan term will be 20 years.

My question is:
Should I use this line of credit to purchase a investment property? A house or condo to rent out that would be less than $100,000. Pay for the whole property with the line of credit or pay some with cash, like 20%? The part that bothers me is that I would not know what my interest rate would be in a year or two or whenever down the line. I know I can get a fixed rate mortgage and I wouldn't have to worry about that but I already have this available and want to know if I make use of it.

So should I use the line of credit or just let it expire? Any suggestions to how I can use it to invest in a rental property? Thanks