All Forum Posts by: Josh Young

@Jimmy Rojas there are a few, here is a map. Shoot me a DM if you want to check any of them out.

@Robert Johnson I don't think you have enough capital to buy something right away, you need reserves for cap Ex, maintenance/repairs, and vacancy. I like the idea of saving for another 10 months then buying another primary residence, the down payment is so low it's basically like doing a BRRRR as far as capital conservation goes, but the the financing is so much cheaper on a primary residence vs a BRRRR. Don't be in too big of a rush, and remember the more properties you have the more reserves you need.

@Tiffany J. I like buying a new primary residence and keeping the previous as a rental, this helps keep the down payment manageable (around 5% or less), it helps me better understand the condition of the property when I turn it into a rental (I fix/update some stuff while I live in the house and prepare for it to become a rental), and it helps make sure I always buy in a good area that my family will want to live which is good for appreciation. 

It is important to learn as much as you can and a mentor can help answer questions you might have, these forums are also good for that, but the truth is I learned more by doing it than I could have ever learned from a book/podcast or mentor. 

My suggestion would be, save to have more reserves than you think you might need and go for it, the extra cash savings will help offset a lot of the risk of not knowing what you don't know.

Here is what I did: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/1096979-how-i...

@Lynn Wong San Tan Valley and even a little farther out into Florence you can buy a new build that will cash flow at 30% down. You can get a lower interest rate on a new build using the builder's lender and you will have almost no cap ex or maintenance/repairs for several years (long enough to give you time to raise rents and maybe even refinance). This area is growing and will continue to grow with the addition of new highways connecting this part of the valley. Full disclosure, I am an investor and agent/property manager in this area and I help investors find, analyze, buy, and manage properties using this exact strategy.

@Armando Carrera never do #1 or #2. You might refinance #1 in a few years, but don't lock up your cash in that property, once you do it can be difficult/expensive to get the cash back out of it. Don't touch #2, just enjoy the fact that you have a good rental with a great interest rate, at some point you might want to do a cash out refinance on it, but probably not until your LTV gets super low.

If I was you I would buy another primary residence using a low down payment, save most of the cash and then buy another primary residence a year later, and/or use some of the money to buy an investment property putting 25% down and save some of the cash as extra reserves.

@Jonathan Vince why is your interest rate so high, did you buy it as an investment property instead of a primary residence? You should be able to refinance it as your primary residence and get a lower rate. If you are looking to grow your wealth and add to your portfolio I would add leverage to the Bakersfield property, if you do a cash out refi you should be able to get 75% LTV which would pay off the $100k investment loan and you'd have $50k left over to invest. Then take part of that cash and buy another primary residence and rent out both sides of your current home. Here is a link to a post I did that might help you: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/1108744-how-t...

@Seth Nichols rather than getting into fix and flip why don't you buy another primary residence using a low down payment and turn your first house into a rental?  Here is a post I did that might help you: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/1096979-how-i...

@Elexa Marsh you need to talk to a lender, they will be able to help you create a plan. You should be able to use the appraisal projected rent (on the units that you will be renting out) as income to help your DTI, but they might only use 75% of this projected rental income, they have guidelines from Fannie and Freddie that they have to follow and some lenders have additional guidelines that are even more strict. Learning the underwriting guidelines is the first step to learning how to qualify and then you can create a budget and a plan, after that you can start looking at what market to invest in, although I will say Arizona is pretty attractive, we have super low property taxes, landlord friendly laws, relatively affordable prices, as well as steady population and job growth.

@Jake Andronico I agree that some of his principles are sound, and are probably a good first step for people to learn, and some people might never graduate out of that first step, and some probably shouldn't, but I personally would have never gotten to where I am today if I did what Dave Ramsey said.  It's important to respect debt and understand the risks involved in using it as leverage, but Dave Ramsey seems to tell people to not use it no matter what, I just think that is ignorant.  There are different levels that people will reach in education and investing and he is at the lower level, he does help a lot of people from going backwards, but to be a good investor you must also have offense and not just defense.

@Mary Ainsworth you need to ask your Realtor for the best strategy for their city, it is their job to be the expert. If you are out of state you also want a Realtor who can manage the property for you too, so they are analyzing the deal for you and know what kind of revenue you can expect. I will let you know that mid-term rentals, STR, and rent by the room are all more of an active business and have much higher management fees, so the net returns aren't necessarily any higher for you as an out of state investor. Small multi-family properties can be good, but with added supply of new apartments coming online rents have started to drop a little, and there is very limited supply of these small multi-family properties, so they tend to be overpriced relative to the rental income. The best deal is if you go north of Tucson into Casa Grande or even Florence, Coolidge, or Maricopa you can buy a new build for just over $300k and will rent for just under $2k per month, you are able to get a lower interest rate on these than you can on anything else because the builders have their own lenders that will buy your rate down, so you can break even on cash flow in year one if you put 30% down. Full Disclosure, I am an investor friendly agent and property manager and I help my out of state clients find, buy, analyze, and manage properties using this exact strategy.