All Forum Posts by: Kevin Co

Thanks everyone, greatly appreciate the info and insight helps with the peace of mind as this is only my third purchase. 

Maybe this is a newbie question but I put an offer in over the weekend for a property in Cleveland and the sellers agent replied back with a list of instructions.

Generally I don’t mind the format or the clear requests, it keeps the expectations in line. What I’m wondering though is they have mandated a certain title company be used. The Ernest money check needs to be made out to this title company and all references to any other title company needs to be removed from the agreements. Only there title company can be used.

I’m not even sure this is normal practice, does this sound right? For context this is my third property in the area and only the first time this has come up.

@Phil Chow feel free to PM me and I can pass along the agent I initially used for two SFH properties. They were responsive but I ended up switching to a different company only to combine some services which made sense.

@Brandon Metz if you are looking at multi unit buildings VA loans will increase depending on the number of units and depending on the county - for Cuyahoga county - single family home is up to $453k, duplex $580k, triplex $700k, and 4unit $871k. Keep in mind all of the same debt to income and other financial factors come into play for the loan itself as they would with a regular FHA loan so you need to show that you can still cover these costs and the building needs to be move in ready and meet some other standards for the loan to be approved. Note - the numbers above are the max for that county for a VA loan but the house has to qualify as well so although that's the max loan you may only qualify or the house may only qualify for a certain amount that is less than that max number. Also consider that you need to live in the property for a certain number of years and you can't get a rehab loan on top of the VA loan..there's quite a bit that goes into it

You also need to get your Certificate of Eligibility before applying for the loan

Link to the max loan amounts per county - https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Downloads/Documents/Conforming-Loan-Limits/FullCountyLoanLimitList2018_HERA-BASED_FINAL_FLAT.PDF


There's a ton of info here as well - https://www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans/

One last note...as a non-owner occupied loan you can not qualify for 203k (home renovation loan) so any property that you find that may “need some work” you will need to find other financing for it or have the capital to pay out of pocket. (also note that I'm just a guy on the internet, not a banker disclaimer blah blah)

Thomas Testa the non-owner occupied rules will apply which are not as great as owner occupied financing but not as bad as full commercial lending. For example for single family houses I had to put down a minimum of 15% and for buildings up to 4 units I had to put down 25%. Also, the financing rates were about 1% more than typical best rates for an owner occupied loan. I unfortunately didn’t realize this until I went on my first trip to the city I was investing in and sat down to meet the lender I had been emailing and calling. When he told me about that I spent that night in the hotel re-prioritizing all my planned viewings and re-doing all my calculations for properties I had been researching which eliminated about 25% of the places I had been looking at because the numbers changed.

I started looking for local lenders in the state I was going to invest in and have been pretty happy with the outcome so far. Many of the local credit unions had limitations of being a resident of the city they were located in but I did have luck with some smaller “regional” banks that operated through the state I was investing in or they operated within a two or three state area.

@Michael Seeker i use OneNote in the office for the day job but had not thought about using it like. thanks!

I’m taking a trip out of state this week to look at properties and set up my team (agent, PM, contractors, etc...) I’m packing and working through how I’m going to keep notes straight, how I can utilize the same tools I have on my computer when I’m analyzing deals at home online but I want to attempt to get the same results on my phone or iPad without having to lug my laptop to every meeting and property etc... So what apps do you use and how to you keep track of notes while you’re “out in the field”? Thanks!

appreciate all of the feedback, seems property manager would be the best way to go at least starting out but the need for an attorney if the property is held in an LLC makes me pause a little.