All Forum Posts by: Jeff Bonner

It depends. On one hand your amortization schedule resets back to month one when you refinance. This matters because you pay more in interest expenses relative to principal at the beginning of your loan. I think the banks snuck that into some legislation back in the 80s because they knew the average American moved every 7 years, so they figure make them pay interest heavy up front. Obviously it’s favorable for the bank for you to be on the early end of the amortization schedule. 

However, when I refinanced my rate was incredible. I knew I’d probably keep that house for a long time. Made sense for me all things considered. 

I'm considering using BOAT-US. They work through Geico-Marine and provide insurance. 

We own a lake house that's 2 hours away. We also have a pontoon boat, and would like to rent the two together to boost revenues. There are some peer to peer boat rental policies out there that we're going to look into. Has anyone on this thread done this?

We obviously want to make as much money doing this as possible, but want to minimize stress also. If anyone's out there doing this already, what tips do you have? 

It's a great market. I moved here from Nashville 4 years ago. The market blends a low cost of living with relatively high quality of life, and is growing rapidly. I have two SFRs here, and I'm buying another one his summer. 

Crazy idea to run by BP.

I have a SF rental with a basement apartment/inlaw suite. The property is 5 miles from a large university, and a little closer to the majority of a relatively vibrant tourist area. Right now, I rent the entire 5/2.5 to college students, and they've indicated a desire to renew their lease for a 2nd 12 month term. Last year, they rented the entire house and then pretty much vanished from the house for the summer. This year I have a new idea that I want to run by the BP community.

What I'm considering is seeing if the current students would renew for another 12 month lease, but vacate the use of the basement apartment for the summer, which would allow me to AIRBNB the basement to tourist for the summer. I have considered many options on how to work this sort of custom lease, but ideally would like to reduce their lease over the summer months while they are not planning on being around, then pursue short term rentals until they return. I would probably have to take over utilities during this time. When they return in August happens to coincide with a slowdown in tourism, so it would probably make the most sense to just work it out where they have the entire house during the school year; but I suppose if they had an interest in just renting the upstairs unit all year, I could consider trying to continue to airbnb the house all year.

Has anyone ever done anything like this, and if so, do you have any input? 

Thanks, Jeff

Not required. 

I used USAA. I always received the sketchy refi letters in the mail, too. 

So I rented out my former primary residence, one that I'd purchased on a VA Loan. One thing I'd never gotten around to doing before I rented it out was refinancing the property under a less expensive rate. Until today, I was under the false impression that I couldn't refinance the loan while not living in it, unless I wanted to refinance it under a conventional loan with less advantageous rates. I was wrong.

I found out today that I was able to refinance my VA loan to a IRRRL loan, bringing my rate down from 3.85% to 3.379. This is saving me about $125 a month ($1512).

If you're a veteran, and you're not using your VA benefits to help start/build your portfolio, you need to do it!

Those are good points, and I'll be sure I don't break any Fair Housing Rules when marketing the property for the next tenants.

Thanks!

I'm renting my former house with the in-law suite to unrelated tenants. 

My question is for anyone who owns a rental propert that has an in-law suite. For those that do, have they ever rented to a family that needed to utilize the in-law suite for an adult child or their elderly parents. If they have done so, have they found that the in-law suite (which would have a kitchen, bath, living room and bedroom) actually draws more rental income than a comparably sized home?