All Forum Posts by: Josh Engelhart

Literally every bank licensed to do business in the state of Ohio.

PM me if you want to get more specific.

I'm not exactly sure what makes them a great tenant? I'm under contract on a similar property right now. When I take ownership I'm giving the month to month tenants a 60 day notice that rent is going up. If they want to stay they and pay me a fair price that's fine, if not it gives them a cushion to leave. I will not be subsidizing their housing and/ or letting them pay hundreds of dollars less than someone a few doors down.

If the property has any issues that would cause someone to not be able to live there (roof, plumbing, broken windows, holes in the walls, etc.) those items would come back subject to repair on an appraisal and need to be fixed before you can get any type of mortgage financing. If you buy from a person and the items are small they might fix them for you to make the deal work. The bank will never do that for you and on a property like this you need either cash or hard money.

You can offer however much you want. They probably won't take that big of a price cut if the house was just listed. If the property has been sitting on the market for a long time you might have a shot or they might counter your offer.

Disclaimer, I'm not a CPA and you should always consult one for tax advice.

In my experience it cannot be deducted from your W2 wage income and fill not affect your AGI. It will be a passive loss that can be carried over and used against future positive real estate income.

I would lease it and also probably refinance to pull your money back out as @Joe Hines suggested.

You can sell it later if you want to and make money on it now.

Government backed mortgage loans need income filed on US tax returns, permanent residency or long term Visas (L1, H1-B...), and a permanent US address.

I don't know where you would go offhand, but you can certainly find someone willing to lend to you if you are willing to put down such a large down payment. Those lenders won't be concerned about lending anyone money secured by habitable real estate at 50% LTV. You should call some portfolio and hard money lenders.

I always poke around Zillow, apartments.com, etc. to get an idea on market rents on nearby streets. Yours will likely go for something similar when you find new tenants.

@Andrew Herrig is right with taxes and insurance. Check the value the county auditor site has listed right now and if it's lower than your purchase price plan to adjust accordingly. I would call an insurance broker to get an idea on the quote now as an occupant and what it will look like later for the landlord policy.

I opened this thinking $8k for paint was crazy, but that sounds like a huge job.

My rule of thumb is to get at least 3 quotes for everything (at least the first time) and let everyone know I'm shopping them around.

Low earnest money deposits aren't uncommon. I've seen as little as $500 or $1,000 even in NY. On any property you are trying to wholesale it likely needs too much work to pass an appraisal for financing and to be sure you can pay cash they want to see proof of funds. If you're trying to wholesale something already listed on the MLS you're probably wasting your time.

You want your own attorney if you're going to operate in NY. They should be able to walk you through the best way to handle this and structure you contract. It's why you pay them.

If you are looking to grow your portfolio and stay in the residential space I would definitely be an advocate for the HELOC. Origination fees are likely close to $0. Depending on the lender you can go up to 70% or 80% LTV. You don't have to use it all at once and you only pay interest on what you are using at that time. You could tap that equity for the down payment on way more than one more rental if you wanted to. You could also let each new property pay back the money you borrowed against this one to eventually pay the HELOC back down.

If you are looking to really go for it and get into commercial/ apartments I would sell this and go for the 1031 as suggested by @Caleb Heimsoth. If it's really worth $300k now that could be 25% down on a $1.2MM building or complex.

If you are looking for piece of mind than you probably want to stay put.

Personally I think leaving all the equity in that one house is a waste. Right now you are guaranteeing low risk and low returns. You don't need to leverage everything to the max and I wouldn't recommend taking on more risk than you are comfortable with. Some think it's less risky to have moor doors because you aren't hit as hard by vacancy, can take advantage of economies of scale, etc.