All Forum Posts by: John Marlin

In this instance, the previous home is in my name, the current home is in her name 

Help me analyze my deals! My fiancé and I are considering selling our current primary residence in 9 months (after we hit the 2 year mark), and also our last primary residence. Only considering because we could sell both tax-free being primaries 2 of last 5 years, and expenses are going up on both, and we may be able to get better returns elsewhere. However, both are great homes in desirable parts of town. Details...

Home #1. Basis is $130k, plus $50k HELOC (used to fund Home #2 rehab), and could sell for almost $300k, netting us let's say $110k. Our total payment with the HELOC is roughly $1500/mo, and the home is renting for $2000/mo. However, my loan was an ARM, and is currently at 5.5%, but will be resetting within the next year to market rate. I was also notified insurance is almost doubling... I will also have a hard time refinancing, because I am 1099 self-employed (full-time musician). So our cash-flow will be next to none in the near future.

Home #2 (our current house). Basis is $180k, and could sell for likely $340k. we fixed up the home with HELOC on home #1 mentioned. So we could net likely $150k. Our payment is near $1800/mo at 6.175%, and the home could rent for $2500 if we went that route. However, our ins/taxes are increasing, and our payment would go up as soon as we lifted the homestead exemption as well. Another reason for potentially selling this home, is that my fiancé didn't qualify for a HELOC on this home (house is in her name), and our equity is tied up.

Overall, we love these homes and would love to keep them, but holding costs here in TX are expensive. We want to know if it's better if we take advantage of this window to sell them tax-free and net close to $250k. I also am a Realtor and can save us expenses on that end. We are 29 and 30 years old, and want to set ourselves up as best we can for financial freedom in the next decade and want to know the opportunity cost of keeping these. The downside of selling will also be that our expenses will go up by buying a new home as well, and we aren't very high income earners (we both make a little over $100k/year combined)

We also own a few small rental properties in smaller towns nearby in TX, so the rental game isn't new to us! Help us figure the right path forward!

THANK YOU GUYS!

 Hey Bob, would love to hear about this, PM me!

Hey all! I have 10 units with a partner we’ve slowly built up over the years. This has been a side thing for us, and our accounting has been old school manual spreadsheets, along with rent collection varying from tenant to tenant (Zelle, PayPal, cash app, etc…) neither of us are great at keeping up with accounting which makes tax time a nightmare. What are some suggestions for better systematizing a small portfolio, to where we’re not doing it all manually, and we can have reports to better assess where we’re at throughout the year? I’ve looked into Baselane for banking/rent collection. Has anybody used virtual assistants for this sort of thing? Would love to know what is working for other smaller investors/self-managers!! 

Hey BP peers! I'm an experienced investor in single-family houses, looking to get into multi-family next. I recently met an investor who informed me he'll be looking to sell a couple duplexes and a triplex in the next couple of years as he's getting older. How best should I go about presenting him a potential owner finance deal at a fair market value on one of these properties that would be ideal for both of us? Here's a few main points. 

1. He's specifically waiting to sell only one property each year, to not get kicked up into a higher tax bracket and pay more capital gains than he has to. How might owner financing potentially reduce his tax liability?

2. He wants a fair market value, and duplexes here are harder to come by, so I'd be happy to pay accordingly, but want to make sure I'm cash-flowing, but likely might not have 20% down to pay unless I sell or refinance another property. Any creative approaches to financing here that would be enticing to a seller? 

All in all, I don't have much experience with owner-financing, but being a 1099 self employed person, owner financing will likely be my best option. Again, the owner is older, and owns these properties outright, so I believe keeping the consistent income might be enticing to him.

Any other considerations I should be thinking of? Thanks y'all!

Hey KC! Thank you for the kind words. I'm looking to take on more projects down the road, would love to talk lending sometime!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $132,000
Cash invested: $13,000

I bought this single family home in 2019 in Waxahachie, TX as a primary residence. Deal was on MLS. Purchased for $102k, on a construction loan with a 30k budget to remodel, for a total of $132k. Put 10% down. Finished the remodel, and it appraised for $170k. I refinanced with the same bank, and was able to pull back out my full down payment. Lived there for 3 years, and moved on to another live-in BRRRR type deal I'm in. This house rents now for $2,000/month, and is valued above $250k.