All Forum Posts by: Karson Wilson

Super excited to share my wife and I just bought our second property! We just moved to South Carolina in November 2021 for me to attend Clemson for my MBA and I started my program in January this year 2022. While going to school I am house sitting and walking dogs to help with out a little bit and have some sort of income. One of my clients asked me to house sit for the second time for her and informed me the house was going to look a little different this time because she was getting ready to sell. I then told her my wife and I were looking for a home and asked how much she wanted for the property! She named her price and we told our agent who 5 minutes later had the offer ready to go and sent it off. Our offer was accepted and we ended up buying the house off market and for $15k under the appraisal value. We’re super excited and will do a small renovation! We closed on the house just over 2 weeks ago!!

@Brad Hammond that makes more sense. And then the loan on the house would still remain what we currently owe? It would not increase to the estimated $338K?

My wife and I just bought a house a few months ago (November 2020) for approximately $293K and now Zillow has it as an estimated $338K. Would it be wise to try and refinance to save money and stop paying mortgage insurance? We are paying around $1,750 for our mortgage now. Our goal is in the next few years to move and rent it out. Per Zillow estimate it would rent for around $1,700 a month. 

When refinancing would our new loan be for $338K or how does that work when refinancing? And where would that additional $45K of equity go? 

Is buying a water softener a good purchase for a future rental? We’re currently living in the home in Salt Lake City Utah and thinking about getting a water softener. Would I be able to increase rent for having soft water? Or is it not worth the investment?

@Jeremy Stanfield okay great, being the first property I don’t want to try and add value with counter tops or cabinets and then lose out on that few thousand dollars that could go into the next deal!

@Jeremy Stanfield thank you for the feedback! And the seller just put a new roof on, so that was a huge plus for us. And I like that idea of seeing comps in the area and seeing how things are being flipped. If comps in the area don’t have granite would it be a bad decision to add granite for appeal for future tenants?

@Alex Huhn thank you for the feedback, I will DM you the house listing to see if you have any other ideas!

@Eric Balken thank you for the advice, we are planning to close off the back yard with a fence. But I like the idea of just sanding and painting the cabinets rather than spending a few thousand dollars for whole new cabinets!

Closing on a single family residence in Salt Lake City next week and this will be my first property. We plan to live in the house for 2 or 3 years and then renting it out. To make sure that I hit the 20% mark (to avoid any further mortgage insurance) what are good ways to add value to the property?

I’m thinking of refinancing at that time to lower the mortgage payment to make sure that it is a cash flowing property. We are going to redo the back yard it’s currently dirt and weeds, we are thinking of redoing the cabinets and doing granite counter tops.

What are some other ways to add value rather than hoping the market continues to go up?

Thank you for your help!!

@Paul Moore thank you for the visual with the graph! If the market down turn lasts a few years would it still be best to make the minimum payment or just try to knock it out in the next year? And then save for a down payment to invest?

We (my wife and I) have a goal to try and pay off the student loans in the next year or so.