All Forum Posts by: James Potter

@James Potter there are a lot of people on BP who like to share their expert advice, although having never done business in that market. First bit of advice is to connect with someone in that market. They know best what the local regulations are (and they differ across the state). Then start to look st the numbers. Opportunities do exist in spite of this NOT being a buyers market.

@James Potter If you are considering an STR property, you'll have similar rules to Kauai, in that it has to be in a designated area. Most of the areas are areas zoned for resorts.

If you are thinking longer term, yes, you can get more for your money on the big island. 

Land is cheap outside of the two cities. You'll have to catch rain water. Blow a hole in the ground for a cesspool. Soil is about 4 inches thick then you hit rock.  Internet is spotty.  Hopefully you can get your house built before all the  materials get stolen.  Str recently disallowed where my brother lives.  Weather is great. If you get up high enough in elevation you can avoid the 3" sized roaches and termites, so someone told me. Hard to believe though.  I'd like to get back there someday. I wanna see that rock where they cooked Capt. Cook and ate him. Wild place.

House hacking FHA is one route to go. If going FHA, you need to have the intentions of living their for the one year obligation. I highly discourage mortgage fraud. However, life happens and situations change and that is understandable (people getting deployed, passing away, losing jobs or relocating, etc.). So be honest about it. It's not worth the legal ramifications to lie and get caught…

A mentor of mine has a HELOC that he's been utilizing for the last few years to finance BRRRR's and then rinses and repeats to build up a large portfolio. Something to consider!

Hey James! Congrats on the move towards your first investment! House hacking is a great tool if you are ok with moving every year or so, which means you would want to live lightly (not a lot of furniture, basic necessities so that its easy to move and not a huge ordeal) during that process. But if you plan on staying in your current house, then yes I would also recommend a HELOC if you can find one with a decent rate at your local bank. Gives you the most flexibility with the lowest payment as they are usually interest only payments. If you're flipping houses, then you just pay off the HELOC balance once you've sold the property. If you're holding the property, then once its up and running you can do a cash out refi into a long term loan and then pay the HELOC off. Bear in mind that both DSCR and conventional lending have seasoning guidelines when it comes to cash out refinances. For conventional you can pull cash out within the first 6 months of acquisition, but you can only pull out the amount that you used to purchase the property, nothing more. So if you paid say, $100k for it and put an additional $50k into it after the fact, you would have to wait 6 months before you could pull out funds beyond what was used to purchase. DSCR loans have similar guidelines but they very depending on the lender. So you just have to plan accordingly. Good luck!

@James Potter congrats on putting yourself in a good position. I would get with an agent and lender and start working on a game plan. There are many ways to build your investments. You could do a FHA and house hack, but it might not be as practical as some other options you might have.

Check out a HELOC on your current primary, or a cash out REFI. Figuring out the financing is important, but you also need to work on your buy box as this will help you determine amount of funding needed.

 HI James!

First off, congrats on all the success thus far and welcome to the game! There are a million ways to get started. From a mortgage perspective - if you have a free and clear property they best way to scale quickly is through house hacking FHA loans. Do this every year until you cant anymore. You will have to refi out of one to acquire the next is most situations but this is a tremendous way to scale one at a time using only 3.5% down payment. Once you have built up your portfolio from this strategy you can cash out and starting purchasing investments using DSCR products. The best thing ever. No income, no employment, just asset based lending. Make sure you have a set a strong foundational frameworks (Models and numbers with important KPIs) that track and anticipate the performance of your investments. Feel free to reach out and connect for any questions. Gl!

Thanks so much, Devin! I just sent you a connection request. Also, one additional thing I was wondering is if you can house hack FHA loan if you live in a property, per se, 6 months and 1 day in the first year? I'd live in my primary house the rest of the time.