All Forum Posts by: Jared Bouzek

@Robert Aydelott No problem. You might check out the Bigger Pockets bookstore. Scott Trench wrote a book called Set For Life that talks about this subject. Might be a good read for you.

@Levi Lanzrath You should connect with @Matt M. He's an agent and invests in these types of projects himself.

@Robert Aydelott There's nothing necessarily wrong with buying a $425k primary residence. Like I said above, you just have to separate that from investing because it's a personal choice. It might be different if you said you were going to try to buy a multifamily property. 

It also depends on how long you plan to live in the property before converting it to a rental and how long you plan to hang on to the property. Is this a 5 year, 15 year, or 30 year type of investment? That all plays into the decision. If your goal is cash flow, you're probably going to want to aim in a lower price range. I don't know exactly what that number is, but I guess you have to examine what you're willing to live in for the short-term to put you further ahead down the road.

Robert Aydelott You’re probably not going to cash flow putting $0 down. People investing in Denver struggle to cash flow putting 20% down. That’s not to say you shouldn’t invest in Denver. The VA loan can allow you to control a $425,000 asset with just the few thousand you pay in closing costs. I just wouldn’t necessarily look at it as an investment if your taste for a primary residence is in that price range when you’re putting $0 down. Any appreciation you gain is just icing on the cake and that rate of return is pretty sweet. But this allows you to save some of the money you have to buy another property.

Eric C. Capital Title and they have an attorney who will manage the transaction. I’ll have to find the contact info in the morning.

@Monica Pina Congrats on taking action. You've made the first major step. I would agree you need to have your agent involved and get the docs through the seller. HOAs are notorious for charging those large fees to get information. We run into that on the lending side.

As far as scrutinizing the investment, it depends on what your intentions are for the property. If you plan to pull cash out of it to maximize your return, it would be good to sit down and look at the numbers with hypothetical long-term financing in place so you understand what that would look like from a cash flow and return perspective. 

Also if you do plan to refinance it, you may have somebody try to determine if it is warrantable or not. In conventional financing, condos face scrutiny on the lending side for warrantability which is determined by a few factors. Some of those factors include the percentage of condos owner occupied vs investor owned, budget concerns, HOA delinquencies, litigation concerns, etc. If any of these issues arise, it could cause you problems with getting it financed with a Conventional loan. It's just something worth investigating if that is part of your plan.

@Cameron K. I tend to agree with the comment above. If your goal is to acquire more properties to hold, why not cash-out refi and lock in your interest rate? A HELOC is good if you're going to be cycling money a lot like if you were using it to flip. If you're just taking the equity and acquiring more properties, you can lock in your interest rate long-term and not be subject to the variable rate of a HELOC. You would be able to access up to 70% LTV with a Conventional loan for 2-4 unit properties.

@Stephen Craul We do have @Drew Fein who contributes some in the forums. She might be able to help you.

@Dominic Arnone For both scenarios, @James Carlson would probably be a good contact for you.

@Stace Riley Welcome to Bigger Pockets! I live in Castle Rock as well and love it. Good luck with your investing.