All Forum Posts by: Jason Munger

This question can be answered at the "macro" and "micro" levels.  

First you need to figure out what your budget is and your investment strategy.  If you want to buy an hold a 3 bedroom, 2 bath and your budget is $200,000 then you know to completely stay away from certain markets.

Then start researching general markets/regions/cities.  Look for population and job growth.  Multiple industries in that area is also a plus.  Once you find a general market, you can narrow your search further by looking at crime rates, school rankings, etc.  As you get more granular, then you can start looking at actual listings.  Start comparing the rent to value rations and make sure a property in that area will even cash flow.  There is nothing for frustrating than finding a great property that meets all your other criteria, to only then discover that rent in that area will not cover your expenses.

As many others have said, start with financing.  Even if it's just a discussion with the lender.  You don't even have to do an actual application at first.  Just see how much you could get (roughly).  You want to be careful how many times your credit is pulled until you are ready to take action.  

Based on your debt, income, credit, etc. they should be able to give you a rough idea of what you would qualify for.  Then when you are ready to get for serious, have a proper pre approval done since you will usually need that for an offer.

Once you know your approximate budget, you can determine if a buy and hold or flip in your area is even feasible.  If it isn't, than you can explore other options.  Remote investing?  Although not ideal for your first deal, it's an option.  Or maybe you go another route to build up some cash.  Wholesaling, Subject 2, joint venture, owner financing, just to name a few.

Would you be making enough improvements to the property that a refi in the near future could be a possibility? That could free up cash for the next deal. Essentially a BRRRR

 So essentially you could "pay cash" for the property using a SDIRA or Solo401k, then use one of these lenders to finance the construction of a home on that property?  Would the Solo401k be funding the construction project or could you do that personally?

Hypothetically... you let's say you have $100k in a Solo401k and purchase land for $100k so the Solo041k is drained.  Then personally you want to build a $300k home on the property with your own funds and a loan.  Is that possible with the lenders mentioned above?

For this scenario, assume you would never live there and sell the property after construction is complete.  

Closed on a home that was owned by an elderly couple.  They passed away and the family was selling the home.  During our final walk through, our teenage son found a porno DVD in the utility room.  It was propped up against the wall, almost like someone wanted us to find it.  We had some good laughs.

Not sure what was funnier, the fact that our son found it and that made for an awkward conversation because our 9 year old daughter didn't get why we were laughing (fortunately she didn't see the cover), or the fact that an elderly couple lived there.

Then, later that day, we sat across from the lady (daughter of the couple) that was at closing to sell the home.  She had no clue what we had "discovered".  We had to keep a straight face...

Our daughter still doesn't know why we think "Daddy Knows Best" is so funny.

Decline the application and don't tell him why.  Simple as that.  Or tell them you only want/can rent to single family.

Just to add onto my post from a couple months back. We have now closed on the HELOC and all I can say is that it was a terrible experience.

Our closing was delayed almost 3 weeks - entirely there fault

Multiple times we called to check on the status since we had not heard from them for days, only to be told they were waiting on us for XYZ document.  We would then re-forward the email from when we originally (sometimes twice) sent them the document days or weeks ago.  Sometimes they would find it "misplaced" in the system.

We were given a date and time for closing, then the day before they contacted us to "setup closing".  What?  We already have an appointment?!?  Apparently it haven't even cleared the under writer yet.  How is that possible?  Closing was pushed out several more days.

The day of closing they messed up the deposit instructions which delayed the transfer to our bank.

We were told that they were swamped because of short staffing due to COVID.  Fine.  Maybe you shouldn't take on that much new business then?  Maybe you just don't promise dates you can't make?  Had they told us the actual time frame (accurately) to begin with, it wouldn't have cause so much frustration.

Lots of conflicting information on this thread compared to what we have been told by PenFed over the last few months.

Recently their customer service has fallen off. Days pass before phone calls are returned. Their failure to process a HELOC in a timely manner is about to cost us a deal. We applied months ago and to get everything lined up and ready for when we wanted to pull the trigger. Then it was "go time" and they became unresponsive. Credit, LTV, income, etc...are all fine, so it isn't an issue there. Like I said, this was all pre-approved. Not too happy...

Bump...I'm interested too