All Forum Posts by: James Nazario

Love these Mike. Keep us posted 👍

Congrats on getting started! 

Motivation is great and is what keeps people going. The only thing I wanted to add here is the importance of reserves and a little patience. 

It could be pretty risky getting into an investment without anyway to cover the inevitable repairs, maintenance, and possible vacancy or eviction. 

If you're time pressured to move, then I would consider a short term rent while you save a little more and give you time to shop around a little bit. 

Have you ever heard someone say, "Don't shop at the market when you're hungry"? Put yourself in a position where time is working for you, not against. 

Either way, best of luck and keep at it! 

Yea, I'm currently only looking in New Haven County. I'm currently house hacking in East end Waterbury and plan on doing another Brrr/hack a little further south(wallingford, hamden, new haven) 

I dont know Fairfield county all that well, but look forward to seeing what you come up with. Feel free to reach out with any questions, I'd be glad to help!

Welcome to BP!

Always great to see new CT members here!

What areas are looking to invest in? 

Great Job on the units! They look great! 

I agree with @Eric A. for sure about making sure to keep some extra reserves on hand and factor in a monthly maintenance allocation. unless you're already doing that of course, just wasn't clear. Either way, congrats and keep up the good work! 

Hey Harry! 

Congrats on getting started! I would say first thing to do is get your finances in order. I would save up enough for a down payment plus reserves. You don't want to get into your first multifamily with little to no money to handle any unforeseen expenses/maintenance. It's simply the wrong way to start off.

While you've got that going on, take the time to continue educating. If you purchase an investment property you're going to want to know whether your buying an asset or a liability. 

Networking is also a good idea. If your credit isn't great, take time to call around to banks and find out who you can work with and what they're minimum qualifications are. 

There's many ways to jump in, this is just my 2 cents on getting started. 

Good luck and welcome to the community!

@Connor Wallace

Welcome, Connor! 

There's a wealth of information on Biggerpockets and I would suggest doing some self-educating on the different aspects of REI through the "Education" tab up at the top of the site.

To be a little more specific, search for "House hacking" forums and blog posts to get a more in depth look as to how to get started with your condo and /or multifamily plan.

Also consider why a condo and not just a multifamily to start...

I could almost definitely say you don't need a RE company at this point.

Like @Cameron Norfleet said, you could start with reaching out to a lender to see what types of financing you will qualify for. 

Above all, dig through the site a bit and learn a bit before acting. It could save you big time.

Feel free to reach out with any specific questions. There are always people here to help.

Good Luck!

@Michael Doherty I see lots of great advice here. The only thing I would like to add would be to really consider what you WANT to do. 

What are your long term goals? Do you WANT to own/manage more rental units? Do you WANT to flip houses? Are you considering a flip just to make money to fund more rentals or do you want to make that part of what you do? Do you have a job you plan to stay with or are you looking to go full time REI?

I'd love to hear your end game as sometimes that helps narrow things down further and may assist in getting even better targeted advice.

Also just an aside, I am in a very similar housing situation and this is what I've decided to do:

Being as brief as possible... I'm house-hacking a duplex I purchased several years ago. I updated while I've been living there inexpensively and am now currently in the middle of a cash out refi where the cash will go towards reserves(which are key) and the remainder will help me fund my next multifamily house hack. 

My plan is to purchase another house hack that needs updating and get some sweat equity out of it (I'm a carpenter by trade) all while continuing to live inexpensively and saving for a more permanent residence( either new build or complete remodel) within the next 5 years or so. 

I then plan to use savings and any equity in my primary residence through a heloc or otherwise to continue to fund more multifamily (or possibly other endeavors) at a moderate/conservative rate, all while the investment properties pay themselves down where I will either continue to live off of the higher cash flow once they're payed off or sell some or maybe something else.   

So again I ask, what are you're future goals/ end game?

@Jerryll Noorden

Awesome job!

It's always great finding clean, old hardwood underneath stale and overused carpet. I had the same thing happen to me and the first thing I wanted to do was have them refinished and show them off; 

Until I heard a brilliant tip from @Brandon Turner in his book on Rental Property Investing... 

In most cases, especially lower income areas, the presence of hardwood would likely go unappreciated and it may make more sense to preserve that wonderful vintage material and actually cover it with another type of flooring (I've been using Trafficmaster Allure in my units, which I'm obsessed with) until it comes time you decide to sell the property and then expose the old wood, refinish, and use it as a marketing point to the next possible owner( think about how "rare" and "desirable" that same flooring might be after another 20-30 years if preserved). Hardwood can take the abuse, but it has a limit as to how many times it can be refinished. 

I loved and also practice that advice, and while It's not gonna make or break your rental, I would definitely consider it moving forward with your renovation. 

I've been in home construction almost my entire life and also have an appreciation/passion for up-cycling and vintage and industrial design. If you need someone to bounce some ideas off of, don't hesitate to reach out. I love talking this kind of stuff! Either way, congrats and good luck moving forward! 

In regards to the 2 family in legal non-conforming zones, I am currently in that same situation. I bought a duplex that was grandfathered in and considered legal non-conforming, however there was also a small office building on the property which complicated things to the point where I could not obtain conventional financing. In short, I was able to do a 5 year sellers finance while I figured out how to refi out by conventional means.

Since then, I demolished the office building( it was dilapidated and did not add the value I hoped for) and I am currently in the process of a refi. I will find out this week if there are any further complications beyond the "mixed use" appearance even though there is no longer commercial influence on this property. 

A couple things I learned were:

-Financing may be difficult. Lenders want to be sure that if the house is burnt down or demolished by any other means that it would be covered by insurance to be rebuilt. (In my case, it can only be rebuilt on the original footprint, aka no demo and spec build) 

-Trying to rezone the property may work and may be the answer for some, but is not guaranteed to pass through approval and would most likely be costly and not worth the effort put in, especially given the uncertainty of the outcome.

-If anyone finds themselves in a similar situation, it may limit the ability to sell to someone else who would use a conventional loan. 

I'm curious if any other people who have legal non-conforming multi-family properties have had issues with financing. I will find out in the next week if I can refinance.  Who else has had to deal with a similar situation. 

Thanks Edward for sharing your insight and expertise. You've inspired me to become more active in this community. It's easy to take for granted the value of information that is here at BP and you've reminded me of the importance of sharing. Keep it up!