All Forum Posts by: John Maxx

@Scott E., 

You're right. Last 2 months, prime was 6.25%, yet my rate showed as 5.9%. Seems like I'm a little lesser than prime. I called my bank to ask them what my calculations for rate are,  as I remember saying I had some benefits,  etc. 

Also,  I'm a newbie investor. Put in lot more than I should have for renovations. It's on the market for rent. I am not going to be cash flowing even after a renter in there, sigh :(

Overall,  I'm still planning to keep it for long term hold. Hopefully,  I'll find a good strategy for this in the next few months. 

As most adviced, I think I'll stay on the HELOC for now and the refi when it comes down.

Lots of lessons learned with this first rental. Also,  timing didn't help,  as rates are all super high now. Definitely will be watching out for a lot of things in the next rental. 

 Thank you everyone for their feedback and suggestions. Any more ideas on this situation are welcome! 

@John Carbone

Thank you for your input!

Everyone I speak to and research say rates are only going to go even higher. This is the first I'm hearing that rates could go down.

I think we'll just have to see.

@Jay Hurst

My HELOC is based on prime +1.

So with this, what would you recommend?

Cash out refinance now or stay in HELOC?

Hi all, I'm kind of at a crossroad on how to proceed?

So, finally got my 1st property a few months ago. Used a HELOC and paid all cash, $150k. Fixed up the house and have put it up for rent now.

My current HELOC rate (variable based on current rate) is at 5.9% (Oct, Sep), was 5.2% (July). This equates to about $880 a month for the last 2 months.

I checked with my bank to do a cash out refinance in this property and they quoted me 7.5% for a 30 yr, making payments at $1200 a month and 6.5 % for a 15 yr, making payments at $1400 a month!!!

This is for a loan value of 170k.

Also, I have to pay up first for appraisal and closing costs which is coming up to about just under $6000.

I keep hearing that interest rates are not going to go down any in the best 3-4 years?

What would be the best approach in this case?

-- Continue on my HELOC and hope payments don't get bad?

-- Do the cash out refinance and I was thinking pay some extra and buy down the rate to 5% or so?

IDK...not sure where the best approach is?

Hi all,

Can you recommend some good companies/contacts for refinancing? I want to take advantage of the low rates currently.

Thanks!

@Salvatore Lentini The numbers should also make sense right? responding to your comment:

"I would pick something within 45 minutes of your front door for your first property (preferably closer if you have a 9-5 job also)."

I'm in the similar boat. For any property I see, (I'm in the Charlotte, NC area), the prices have gone up a lot, but the rents not as high. Cash on Cash returns is about 6%...not that great. Would you still recommend to jump into one of these deals just to get started?

Thank you all for your feedback! I appreciate it. 
@Ronan 

@Ronan Donnelly I’m just learning about multi family syndicate deals. Is it basically investing in apartments? Can we sent me some details on what this entails? Will I need to be preapproved for a huge loan amount?

If I was doing this just for passive income, would 7-8% cash on cash return be a decent number? I know ideally 10% or more would be great.

Hi all!

I'm a newbie investor trying to get my first property. I've been reading up on a variety of posts here on BP. I want to buy and hold (give for rent) for long term. 

I live in Charlotte, NC and I keep hearing the market here is hot and only growing larger. I'm trying to get my first property in and around driving distance (40 min to an hour) around here. I work 9 to 5 on weekdays...so, for me I don't think I have the time to go the fixer upper route. I'm hoping I can find something almost move in ready or something that requires minor updates. Here are the criteria I'm looking for

1. A 3 BD room Single Family Home with no to minimal HOA fees (For now, I'm kinda ruling our Townhouses/Condos because they always seems to have a high monthly HOA and there's no control over any special assessment fees they might throw at you).

2. Looking to get it in a good school district.

So far everything I'm looking at are in the 200k and up range. Does it make sense for me to go for something that's about 200K. I'll put down 20% as down payment. The expected rent from these properties are not more than $1500 a month (best case).

I have tried to look for SFH under 100K, but that all look to be in a very bad condition and will need significant amount of work to be put in before the house can be put up for rent...which as of now, I don't think I will be able do.

A) Here itself, I'm not even close to the 1% rule. Is this a deal breaker for most of you all investors?

B) For some of the best houses I've seen, all expenses are coming to about $1200 and the expected rent is about $1500. That's about $300 cash flow each month. The cash on cash value here is approximately between 7% and 8%.

Based on these above numbers, is this something you'd recommend I can go for? I'd start off with one property and yes, I'd obviously want to keep picking up more houses as time goes by.

What would you suggest/recommend?

Thanks!

Hello Charlotte real estate investors!

I’m just getting into investing too. If y’all are planning to meet sometime soon, I’d like to join as well. 

Looking forward to meeting you all. 
John.