All Forum Posts by: Jason Meyers

@Ham Merritt Thanks for your input. I really like your point of view you have on brokers not responding. I will definitely give that a try by calling owners directly!

@Bryan Caprioli I would be looking in the Fort Myers area, or within roughly a 30 mile radius of there!

@Ham Merritt Thanks for reaching out. I am looking for properties with 5+ units, so commercial properties. I would be on a website like LoopNet, Cushman & Wakefield, etc. and find the property that I am interested in (that is over 4 units) and then get no response from the broker that is responsible for that listing.

That's really good to know. So far, everything has been through email; I will definitely give calling a try. Thank you for the advice!

Hello everyone,

I have recently been reaching out to multi-family brokers in the Florida area regarding properties they have. I am relocating to Florida in January so I am looking to get a jumpstart on my real estate investing there by starting to analyze deals and move forward with ones that fit my goals. I have reached out to roughly 5 brokers and got no response back. I am looking for roughly 5-15 units, with only minor renovations needed to be done on the property. Does anyone know why I am not getting a response from brokers?

I have currently no connections in Florida currently (since I'm in Wisconsin until I relocate), so could that be the issue? I wasn't sure how to start building my real estate "team" of lawyers, CPA's, property managers, etc., but I figured reaching out to brokers would be my first step to acquire a property. Any help provided would be much appreciated!

@Erik Peterson There is currently a 4 Bedroom 1 Bathroom for 48K in Whitewater!! Definitely needs some work but potentially a lot of money to be made with that deal! 

@Tyler Turpin Thanks for your input! After reading part of that forum, I came to a similar conclusion as you did. It either seemed that the strategy would work great or it would barely save you any money whatsoever. I'm still interesting in doing future research to find out more about it though..

@Brent Coombs I completely agree with borrowing against the early-gained equity in the house. I wouldn't be waiting for anything, it just takes time to build equity in the house; that's why I was looking into a HELOC to speed up that process. These two investments are NOT the only two I ever want, it is just a strategy I wanted to implement to have two homes clear of debt as I build my portfolio.

And to reply to @Brent Coombs about the link to the other HELOC post. Mainly to say it shortly, one person thinks the strategy works and the other doesn't. They go onto pages of discussion of why this will or will not work, that is why I posted this again in the forum since I wanted additional thoughts on the topics with possible links to additional information or calculators that could help "test" the HELOC strategy. I don't fully understand this strategy either, that's why I'm asking BiggerPockets Forums! I've done research and I am still not 100% convinced that it will or will not work. So simply put it, this strategy seems very complex and will ONLY work if you're having positive cash flow every month. If you do not have the discipline to pay down your HELOC every month it will obviously not work and if you're negative cash flow every month it will not either. The part people seemed to get confused on is how the interest is calculated between a mortgage and HELOC. If you just transfer money from a HELOC to your mortgage, you will owe that amount on your HELOC, but at what interest expense? I really hope I (and others too!) can figure out if this is an ideal strategy to implement.

Stay hungry my Real Estate Friends! 

@Aaron Howell This information you gave me is awesome! Have you used a HELOC to help pay down a mortgage quicker? I have no doubt that me and my business partner have the discipline to stick with it and not abuse our line of credit. Our strategy is to pay off the mortgage as fast as possible for two reasons: 1. Reduce our overall interest cost by thousands of dollars (I understand this is reducing our interest write-off, but I am more concerned about making money than having tax deductible write-offs) and 2. We want our two properties (purchased in a package deal) to be "cash cows" in the short term horizon rather than in 30 years when the traditional mortgage would be paid off.

@Brent Coombs made a really good point about making sure the additional payments are "Principal Only," I would have not known to do that.

Simply to put this, I understand that there are positives and negatives to every strategy you use. Some think refinancing is the best way, but I want to try HELOC. Nevertheless, it will be a learning experience for me and potentially on my next property I will use a refinance to learn more financing skills and learn the pros and cons of that strategy.

I guess what I am looking for is a website or Excel Spreadsheet/Calculator that will show me the amount of money I will save and/or how to implement this strategy correctly. Do I need to look for specific wording or clauses in the HELOC to make sure I'm not going into a bad situation that will hurt me? That's where I am getting stuck.

I truly appreciate everyone's help on this topic!

Hey everyone! I have read a post about HELOC's before but couldn't really find an answer to the question. I'm curious if anyone has used a HELOC (home equity line of credit) to pay off their mortgage in larger chunks, reducing the total interest you pay on the mortgage and shortening the time to pay it off. I'm very interested in this strategy and want to implement it this year. Has anyone done this strategy? And if so, where could I find information about how to use a HELOC? I understand the concept but I've heard people have troubles getting it from a bank if they know it is being used to pay off a mortgage. Also, how is interest applied to a HELOC? Is it simple interest or is it compounded? And what is the "normal" time frame for the compounding if it is? Any help would be appreciated! This is a huge goal for me to accomplish in 2017 and I want to waste no time achieving that! Wishing everyone the best of luck in 2017! Jason Meyers