All Forum Posts by: Julian Sibley

@Avery Wayman You need to figure out what your end goal is. Sounds like you want to buy and fix but will you flip it or hold it as a long term rental?

For your first property I would recommend looking into "house hacking" using the search function on Bigger Pockets. You should figure out your financing before you start looking, so you know what you can qualify for. Rehab loans through conventional financing can be challenging if your lender does not have experience with them. If going the conventional financing route I'd recommend paying for rehab costs out of pocket. If you need to finance the rehab costs you should look into a private money or hard money loan and then refinance out of it once the repairs are finished, or flip the property.

In addition to @Christopher Phillips recommendation after you read through the guides you should go through the investor basics forums as well, you will be able to find the information you need to get started if you search through the forums.

Good luck!

@David Graham Also make sure the property doesn't have an HOA, we had a home that the HOA would not allow short term leasing. We are also in the process of purchasing a vacation home that will be on AirBNB. The plan is to help with the mortgage but we don't plan on cash flowing, the family will use it too much for that.

We have never used AirBNB for rental income but know a couple who do, based on the responses you have here it seems like you should run numbers and consider the active income (normal taxes) and additional costs. Might not be worth your time to short term lease through AirBNB after it is all said and done, unless you plan to use the property for yourself/family as well.

"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death" - Albert Einstein

We are all still learning! Keep it up!

Open your outlook calendar and categorize EVERYTHING, define what activities are income generating and you focus on performing only those activities. Your assistant does everything else, emails, phone calls, etc.

The purpose of an assistant is to give yourself more time to do the things that matter (Think of the big rocks principle, if you have no clue what I mean by that ask and I will elaborate) so that after paying their wages your income is higher than it would be without said assistant.

@Lisa Sanders Welcome to Everett! The Bigger Pockets podcast is another great resource in addition to searching the forums. Once you figure out your framework and investment strategy start looking for partnerships with similar minded investors. There aren't as many quality networking events in the North-end but they do happen now and then.

@Jacob M Nelson Welcome! Good to see another Everett, WA investor. This is a great place to gain knowledge, I would recommend searching through the forums for topics you are interested in. Are you Navy by chance? We have a couple clients who are "firefighters" that recently deployed.

I think a good place to start is figure out what your plan/strategy is: Flips, buy and hold, etc. It sounds like you're willing to house hack which is a great way to start in my opinion. Once you decide what you want your future portfolio to look like start running some numbers/scenarios on homes in the area and watch what they go for. If you ever have questions on your numbers there a various people on here who will let you know if it makes sense or not.

Basically if you can get the numbers aspect down and then know what to look for you will be ready to jump in once you find a good deal.

As far as REIA's go I haven't seen many in Northern Snohomish County, but that should change soon! You could try finding some through Facebook or Meetup.com

@Christian Wathne your problem likely lies in the fact that FannieMae guidelines will not allow a cash-out refinance on a property that has not been seasoned 6 months, unless no financing was used for the initial purchase, then you could fall under the "delayed financing guidelines" and get some of your money back out before 6 months.

This means no bank will likely help you refinance before 6 months, because FannieMae will not purchase that loan from them on the secondary market. I would also caution you to ask around their cash-out LTV's on investment properties. Typically an 80% LTV cash-out refinance is for primary residences in my experience, you may only be able to cash-out 75% LTV, which with "tight margins" as you mentioned, might skew your numbers and have you better off sticking with the flip.

Best of luck on your search, and if you do find a bank that will cash-out before 6 months, please do share!

@Robin Croen you shouldn't have to make yourself attractive to lenders, they will WANT to help you. It's their job. Above all just be open with them, they will decide whether the info you are giving them needs to be disclosed to underwriters or not. 

For starters they will want: Last 30 days paystubs, last 2 months asset statements (primary checking, savings, investments, retirement accounts), last 2 years W2's, if you are self-employed plan on providing last 2 years tax returns. Maybe some additional documents depending on your specific situation but that's a general starting point.

DON'T: Quit your job, switch jobs, or work fewer hours. Don't apply for new credit or acquire new debt (Like a car payment). Limit your spending and try to save money (once you close your loan you can make any major purchases you want). Keep your money where it is, and limit large deposits (50% or larger of your typical paycheck) you will have to explain what these deposits are from and provide proof. Keep making your monthly payments on time.

@Gustavo Munoz Castro My brother is looking to do a similar thing in King County (Shoreline, WA to be specific). In the city of Shoreline he is zoned R6 which is a 7,200 sq ft minimum lot size. 

My guess is that you are too small to subdivide, but you could call the county planning department and ask to speak to a planner about subdividing.

If you can't subdivide the property, you may have enough space to either build onto the unit (like a duplex) or sometimes you can get a permit to build an ADU (mother-in-law suite).

Once you talk to the planning department to see if it is feasible, look up what their permit process is like, unincorporated king county might be more lenient than Shoreline, but I wouldn't build onto it unless you can squeeze more than a duplex. It was going to be too much $$$ compared to cash flow for my brother's place. I wouldn't talk to a bank or contractor until you have your plan mapped out and have run the #'s

@Todd Young, @Paul Bowers is correct. If you want the property to be "truly his from a tax perspective" your son needs to be 18 before he can get a mortgage, or even buy the house/transfer title for that matter.

Once he is 18 he will have several options, but they all depend on his income. My guess is you will either have to gift him the cash to do the deal himself or front him the short term hard money loan.