All Forum Posts by: Jesse Waters

Welcome to BP.  Always great to see others from SC on here.  From what I know of it, the upstate is full of opportunities.   BP is a great place to network and learn.  Let me know if I can be of assistance. Best of luck.

Agree with @James Wise if you can live in it for a year or so, that will give you a good chance to learn how to manage a property and all the in's and outs that go with being a landlord/REI. If I could do it again, I would do the same thing. Also, after you have owned the property for a while you can do a re-fi to potentially get cash out and use on your next purchase, or at a minimum discharge the PMI, since you will have less that a 20% DP you will most likely end up paying PMI each month. Give it a year, then you can repeat the process, move to another property.

Best of luck.  I have learned a ton on BP and am quite sure you will as well.

It varies property to property.  I have some properties that the tenant pay everything and I have a few that I pay the water on.  I am in the process of acquiring the rest of the buildings on that street and will start sub metering when I either own all of them, or can get the rest of the owners to sub meter as well.

Sounds like you are going in the right direction.  Best of luck.

Not really that I know of, I would be curious to see if there is.  Insurance rates vary by market.  For my area and the properties that I typically buy I have a good idea of the cost of the policy, but I still call in and get a quote before I purchase.

I recently did numbers on a property that I am looking at, made a solid guess on the numbers & when I called my insurance company, I was off by about $1 a month on the premium.

Multi family has been much better for me. 4-plex properties sell for just above a single family property in my area and provide a ton more cash flow, however, since properties under 5 units fall under residential lending rules, generally speaking, their appraisal is based on market comps, so there is a good chance that they will not appreciate nearly as well as a SFR. I try to aim for a mix of 4-to-1 Multi to single, cash flow for now, appreciation for later.

Never underestimate the power of having an attorney review your contracts before you go forward.  If you are looking to be a buy and hold investor/land lord you will need two basic contracts:  First, your purchase contract, generally, you will use the stand form for your state which your real estate agent/broker will help you fill out & they generally have them on hand.

The second would be a lease.  If you are going to manage yourself then I would find a standard contract, adapt it as you see fit then have your attorney give it once over.  If you are using management, do the same, review the contract that the manager uses then have your attorney look it over.

Hope that helps you get going.

2008 Ford F-250 4 door with the diesel.  My indulgence is my horses, so I use it to pull them around.  My wife drives a paid off Nissan mini van as the kid hauler. 

I have found that by keeping between 4-6 months worth of operating funds (monthly payment + utilities) in the bank I have been able to weather anything that has come up.  

I can think of a few options.  First, see if the mortgage is assumable.  If it is then great.  If your mom doesn't mind it being on her credit you can do it subject-to.  Meaning, then tenant pays you the rent, you pay your mom the mortgage, she pays the bank, you keep the difference between mortgage payment & rent.

I would also sniff around different lenders, they may have some ideas.  Some may allow you to re-fi after 6 months of seller financing, others may allow you to get a new mortgage and count the current equity as a 'gift.'

Talk to some lenders see if they have any other ideas.

Best of luck.

Go and visit, walk around, talk to people, become a local-even if only for a short while, stay for a few days.  Find out whats going on, what there is to do, experience it, live it.  Its very hard to replace first hand knowledge and experiences in an area.