All Forum Posts by: Jon Proulx

@Bob Bevis - very interesting, I didn’t know that kind of service existed. I’ll definitely look into that.

@Troy Zsofka - I really like that way of looking at investing the remaining money, I never thought of it like that.

Great points from both of you, thanks for the advice.

Hey BP members,

I’m looking to refinance my personal home mortgage while the rates are so low. I have a few questions:

Am I better off going through the same lender that I got my mortgage through, or trying to shop around? (Or is that a bad look?)

Is it more worthwhile to save the extra money I'm saving from my PITI every month to add to my "investing fund", or keep the same monthly payment and pay down my debt?

Thanks in advance!

@James Smith

I cannot believe how much some of these properties are being listed for right now in Dover. That's the one thing that worries me about trying direct mail. But then again I'd rather fail trying than never get started and miss out on any potential opportunities. I think I'm better of trying to BRRRR SFHs from direct mail than purchase a multi family and attempt to cash flow given this market.

I’ve considered house hacking in Dover. I’m currently house hacking in Lee (just renting to friends) and I planned to stay here for a few years while I pick up other investment properties. As I’m just getting started, commercial is probably out of the question. That leaves flipping and investing in the “bad” area of Dover or looking in other town. I’ll start by taking a ride though the neighborhoods to get a feel for the different streets at least.

We’re on the same page as far as appreciation. I don’t factor it into any of my calculations as I’m really focused on positive cash flow. If I can make a decent profit when I sell the property down the road then that’s great, too.

I’ll have to make another post about Exeter. I’m interested to see if anyone else invests there. I’m not sold on Dover, I just see it as you said, the next Portsmouth, so I do believe there is potential to make money within the coming years. I just don’t want to try to make bad deals work based on that assumption.

@James Smith, very nice breakdown of the Seacoast area. I'm curious what your thoughts are on the future of Dover, Portsmouth and Exeter. Everything on the MLS is outrageous, and I'm willing to start a direct mail campaign and I'm trying to nail down where I want to start. My plan is to analyze the leads, secure the really good deals that I want to BRRRR, and basically wholesale the rest/what I cannot finance.

@Soh Tanaka

So my current PITI is $2,226 with a 4.375% rate. If I refi to the 2.875% rate, my expected PITI is $1,957 (savings of $269/mo). There are not many properties rented in my town to compare to, and the few that are available through BP Insights range from $1,300 - $2,400 for a similar sized home (3 bed, 2 bath, 1700 sq ft). Mine is a bit nicer/more updated than these and has a 2 car garage. So to answer your questions:

If I refi and rent: I'd expect to cash flow -$368/month. This is assuming I can rent the property to either a single family for $2400/mo or (3) individuals for $800/mo, and the tenants pay all utilities. I would provide lawn care service est. at $300/mo since I have a little more than 1 acre of mowable land. Other assumptions are 6% repairs, 8.3% vacancy, 6% cap ex, and I will self manage.

If I refi, house hack and rent the other 2 rooms: I'd expect to cash flow -1,330. This is assuming that the other 2 rooms are rented at $800 each and utilities are split equally. This still includes expenses for repairs, vacancy, and cap ex, but I removed lawn care since I would keep doing it myself if I live there.

If I sell: Based on current projections I have about $40k in equity and assuming 6% of sale price for closing costs, I'd make about $20k after selling. If I were to buy I'd be looking to get a multifamily. My goal is to purchase one through direct mail, renovate, refi, live there and rent the other side while I look for my next rental property. 

If I do not sell: I plan on starting a direct mail marketing campaign to acquire single family homes to either wholesale or keep as buy/hold and rent, depending on the deal and location. 

Hi everyone - I’m just getting started in real estate investing, and I’m looking to get some input on my current situation:

I purchased a SFH last April (2019) to live in (no idea about investment properties at that time). I have recently been listening to 2-3 BP podcasts a day and I'm really excited to start investing. I think wholesaling sounds very interesting, but ideally I want the freedom generated from multiple positive cash flow rental properties.

The situation is, I don’t know what to do with my current residence. It’s a 3/2 in a rural area, 10-15 minutes (drive) from a university. I bought it with no intention of an investment, I paid $15k over asking as an emotional decision since I’d been looking to buy a house for 2 years. My lender reached out to me asking if I want to refi and I qualified to drop my rate by 1.5%. The only rentals I can compare to are rentals around the university, but I’m concerned where I’m not within walking distance I can’t compare those rates. I don’t think I could rent it for enough to cover any more than my mortgage, taxes and insurance. So all other variables (repairs, maintenance, cap ex, vacancy, etc) would be out of pocket. I would require the tenant to pay utilities.

I’m currently renting the other 2 bedrooms to my friends, but they’re planning on moving out in March. I’m thinking my options are either refi and rent it, refi and keep house hacking and try to find 2 new roommates, or sell the house and house hack my next property (I’d like to get a multi family).

Please let me know what your thoughts are or if you need any more info to analyze the situation more!

@Adam Reeves, thank you for the input. My goals are similar to yours, I want the immediate cash flow and if it appreciates well that’s a bonus.

I actually currently own and reside at a SFH that I bought off the MLS last year before I even thought about investing in real estate. I'm going to create a separate forum post looking for advice on that, since I'm not sure if I should sell it or keep it and try to rent it out when I buy my next property.

I don't attend any meetings currently, but I did just join the local REI club on Facebook. I'm definitely interested if you're planning one.

Jon

@Zachary Richards, no worries! I’m originally from Derry. I’ve had thoughts about investing over in Manchester... maybe once I get a few house hacks under my belt and want to add a few rentals that I don’t plan to live in.

@Zachary Richards thank you for the tip! I’m not opposed to marketing to distressed home owners (I actually did some ‘driving for dollars’ today). I’m just having a hard time seeing profitable investments in Dover based on the current prices people are listing and selling houses for given the amount of work they need. Do you have any experience in Dover or would you be willing to share any details of deals you’ve gotten? I don’t necessarily need to invest in Dover but I thought it would be a good place to start looking for opportunities given the high out-of-college rental market from UNH.

@Adam Reeves Hi Adam,

I'm jumping into the real estate investing world and have been looking at Dover to get started. What kind of strategy do you use in this area? I've been combing through the houses that are listed to try to find a multi-family I can house hack and eventually hold as a rental, but it seems like every cost analysis I do results in negative cash flow and ROI, since the purchase price is relatively high and the rents are so low. And that's assuming buying the house at or close to the asking price without doing renovations (which most of them definitely need).