All Forum Posts by: Des Shei

Amie D.
Depends on the type of mortgage. if the first property was obtained with FHA financing, they typically only want you to have one OO financed property at a time, unless for some outstanding reason(which you have to prove), then they may allow you to carry two...a permissible waiver may be if you unexpectedly have to move out of the locale for job related reason. In my experience, unless a waiver is granted, you will have to finance the new property as a conventional investor property, or refi the other into a conventional investor mtg and then purchase the new as Owner occupied/primary. If it's far enough you can classify as vacation home but that has it's own stipulations. Hope this helps you.

I guess it's a good thing you bought a property, Congrats at least on taking action and getting off the sidelines. However reading your story, i can see there wasn't much of a cohesive and thorough plan to execute the overall investment strategy. I would venture to guess there was alot of figuring it out as you go and you were not much in control. I personally wouldn't want my investment property with too many people like you have on title...could lead to lots of problems down the road. And your actual NET profit isn't quite clear. Maybe you can spell out expenses and gross income so we can gauge the true value of your Net that will help with more input on what to work on for your next acquisition. But like i said, you have made the first big step, you learn from this and better your position on the next one...Kudos. There'll be alot of feedback coming your way! :)

Brian, you shouldn't have any problem even with escrow...though some lenders may be different. I just went through it and all i did was convert my insurance from Owner occupied(OO) to NOO. no problems. everything else stays the same.

Now is a GREAT time to refi...don't wait as rates will start climbing. they already did in the last month alone with the uncertainty that surrounded the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling etc. I'm actually trying to refi some of my investment properties down from 5.25 to 4 if i could.

most people would recommend if you have equity, then it is a good idea to refi to a conventional loan IF you purchased as FHA or with the intention to owner occupy. That said the banks generally won't come after you as long as you keep paying and have a landlord insurance policy in place. FHA wouldn't come after you if you've lived in the house past the statutory period( i believe it is a year, maybe 6 months). I just went through this last year. i had lived in the house for about 2.5years, so i moved out, got insurance as an investment property and rented the place on a lease. When the policy changed the bank will know but generally wouldn't exercise any heartache for you. THe problem people run into with fraud of this nature is if they purchase the property as OOC without the intention to live in it and rent it out quickly. The IRS, bank etc finds out and that lands in you not too pleasant territory. :) hope this helps and Happy investing.

I have a property at 4% and a few at 5% and 5.25% that i'd like to get down to at least 4 if not better. Could you recommend some lenders/brokers in the Northeast area or nationally that would refi with low Closing costs. All the properties have more that 20% equity.

i took a hiatus and getting back into the business now. However unlike you i will be funding the rehab and i intend to have my partner fund the purchase( i will pay him a fixed return on his investment, ~ 8%), way better than he is getting on a CD or REIT dividend. I just dissolved my investment company so we will be doing this in our names for at least the next year, will change if we pick up the pace.

Hey i'm in from Stfd, Ct. I took a long hiatus and just came back today. Welcome to the forum.

Hey i'm also from Stfd, Ct. I took a long hiatus and just came back today. welcome aboard

THis is something that always gets considered by most investors; but you need to think about what is the value of your time? what is your time worth? I personally don't like GC'ing the job unless it's a small project with a quick turnaround and i'm not very busy. The benefit of having a GC on the project is that you have 1 person to hold liable for cost and schedule; dealing with contractors it's not always pleasant so no need multiplying the effort. At the end of the day you can do it either way but depending on scope and timeline i'll typically hire a GC.