All Forum Posts by: John Coons

I recently purchased my first home a few months ago and paid $7,500 for a rate buydown from 6.75% to 6%.  I was told at the time that that I would receive that same amount as a tax credit. From my understanding the tax credit will help pay down what I owe each year in taxes.  However, the problem is that I never owe any money.  I either receive or owe no more than $20 a year.  Is there anything I can do on my end to take advantage of this tax credit?  I was thinking maybe I could adjust withholdings at work, but I don't think there is enough time left in the year to have my employer withhold $7,500 worth of taxes from my pay.  

I have heard time and time again that there are major tax benefits to owning a home, but I am just confused on how to tap into those benefits and what exactly those benefits are.

Is it worth sitting down with a professional to go over my concerns? 

I also live in Riverside and recently just got into escrow on my first home purchase. The garage was converted to an ADU and we were told that the bathroom is the only permitted part. We found out that none of it is permitted. I am looking to just convert it and permit it anyways and live in it to reduce my mortgage payment. I was reading that you paid about $4,500 for plans and $15,000 towards the contractor for the work and was just wondering how close you are to being done and how much you estimate it will cost? I feel like this is a very sweet deal.

I have read horror stories on the forums of conversions costing anywhere from 30-150K. Did the permit process slow down the work flow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for all the good advice I appreciate it!

Please excuse my ignorance on the topic, but if I were to buy a muli-family or single family and house hack would that hurt my ability to purchase more property in the future with regard to my debt to income ratio as well? For example right now the average house price in my area is around $500K with the monthly mortgage being over $3k with no money down (VA loan). This is more than half of what I make a month after taxes.

As was mentioned above I am going to keep waiting for prices to drop.  From what I hear there most likely won't be a crash, but a correction will happen and that is what I am waiting for.

Hello BP,

In the last two years I moved back in with my parents, paid off my remaining debt, and saved a little over $100,000.  I consider myself firmly planted in the learning/preparation phase of my investing.

For the last few months I have been feeling some worry set in about what to do with my money.  As of now everything is sitting in a regular savings account.  This is what has led me to BP and RE in general.  

I am single with no children and do not feel any pressure or desire to move out of my parents house right now because the situation is truly a blessing.  My loose plan as of now is to buy a single family home in a more affordable area in southern California that is in good shape and cash flows $100-200 a month after accounting for expenses.  My mindset is that I can learn from this first investment while still having the security of home if I were to make a mistake or something were to go wrong.

However, the issue I am running into is eventually I am going to have to move out and have my own place. As of now I am planning on doing that a year after buying the first rental using the VA loan.

My first question is should I purchase my own home first, before purchasing a rental?  

My second one is if I purchase the rental first how greatly does that impact my ability to qualify for another loan later on?