All Forum Posts by: James S Tomaszewski

Originally posted by @Heath Thomas Jr:

@James S Tomaszewski if that is the case being self-employed that long, you could probably qualify for a conventional investment mortgage. That way you would only need to put 15-20% and get a lower rate. You wouldn't be financing the reno money, but as long as it could still appraise for $440k, you would be able to use the money saved from the lower down payment to go towards the reno.

While I am definitely able apply for a convention loan, as a touring musician during COVID and one that writes off much of my income through my corporation, my tax returns leave me out of the running for a decent conventional loan.

Originally posted by @Heath Thomas Jr:

@James S Tomaszewski how long have you been self-employed and are you planning to fix it up and immediately make it an Airbnb or where you planning to use it as your primary residence until next year?

Self-employed for 10 years. I will need a couple months at least to fix it up as it will not be my full-time thing but I will try to make it an Airbnb as soon as possible.

Originally posted by @Jason Hirko:

@James S Tomaszewski buy the place with a low down payment hard money loan, do the rehab, force equity, and then refinance at the new higher value of your rehabbed home. Keep more (if not all) of that crypto portfolio working for you. Don't trip over dollars to pick up nickels! 

I'm VERY green when it comes to borrowing money, buying real estate, renovating, etc. so I feel a bit safer going with a more traditional loan vs hard money loan..  wouldn't want to get too far over my head here.

Originally posted by @Curt Davis:

Go for it! 5.37 is still not that bad. Ppl have just been comfortable with low rates for the past 8yrs. 

You can always refi later. 

Okay, thank you for your insight! I'm sad to part with some of my crypto investment to put the cash down and for a 6 month reserve for the mortgage payment but my investment portfolio is 100% crypto and I think this will be a great first step into real estate. 

Hey all!

I'm looking to buy my first property right now and put in an offer for 440K on a 2b2b in Joshua Tree, CA. The offer was accepted and, LONGG story short, my mortgage officer pre-approved me for the wrong type of loan. Because I am self-employed, the correct loan I qualify for (3 month bank statement loan) is 5.37% interest and requires 30% down. 

I can pull the cash out of my crypto investments, though it is about half of my portfolio. The place needs work and I plan on putting about $60k in renovations in the property and, with the location and 5 acres of land, I believe the renovations will increase the value quite a bit, which I will then be able to refinance with my lender in 2021. I will also turn the property into an AirBNB in the next year and am almost certain the revenue will pay for the mortgage and then some. 

The only thing is, in the next year or so I will likely qualify for a better rate than 5.37%. 

I'm looking for some insight into whether I should take this opportunity and ride with it (like I said, I think the location and land with this property is priceless- the house just needs work) OR if the loan rate is just ridiculous and doesn't make sense to take on right now with rates so low for conventional mortgages.

Thank you!

I'm actively looking for an investment property to use as a short term rental. I am gravitating towards Joshua Tree and the surrounding area but I had a few questions for those with properties and experience out there.

1) There are A LOT of properties out there, do you feel like the area is over-saturated with AirBnbs or are there enough bookings to go around? I've looked in a couple other vacation areas nearby and it doesn't seem any are as lucrative.

2) Do you think Landers and Johnson Valley are too far from the action to make sense? I've run some properties about 30 min north of Joshua tree through AirDNA and they show the same occupancy rate as J Tree, 29 Palms, etc. but when I spoke to a realtor about it, he reccomended against Johnson Valley because of how far it was.