All Forum Posts by: Aaron K.

Shoot me a message, I work with a VERY investor-friendly agent and have been for the last 4 years.  I own an apartment building in POK.  It can be a rough area depending on where you are.  Some spots, like near the colleges, aren't as bad.

Thanks guys - exactly the responses I was looking for!   You're right, a roof or other major repair would be detrimental.   The area is not appreciating or gentrifying so the values will not move significantly within the next 10 years.  You're right, makes sense to sell now.

We definitely don't make money on this property, but we don't really spend anything on it either.  Selling is an option.  Market value is right around 300k (market dropped after we bought the house), so we'd walk away with $40,000 in cash if we're lucky after paying off the mortgage and realtor fees.   But that doesn't take into account our overall loss on the property (even though we bought it as a primary home when we were young and dumb, not as a rental)

Hi guys, I'm admittedly a bit math-challenged, so I'm having a difficult time running numbers on which option will serve me better in 10 years, 15 years, and 20 years. I tried making spreadsheets but I'm more confused now than when I started.

I'm 32 and own a single-family house which we originally lived in for a couple of years but now rent out. We bought it 7 years ago for $340,000 with a 30-year mortgage at 4%. Our current cash payoff is $240,000 if we were to pay off now. We've already paid about $100,000 in mortgage payments, and if we keep making payments on it instead of paying it off now, we will pay another $360,000 total over the next 23 years. Mortgage payments are $1200, and escrow for tax/insurance is another $1100, for a total of $2300/month.

Rental income from the house pays for ALL expenses - for round numbers, figure $2400/month - so overall the house doesn't cost us anything, but it also doesn't make us anything. I'm basically trying to figure out if it's a better idea to:

a) pay off the mortgage now for $240,000, and take the extra $1300/month for income (or invest in something like Vanguard for 5% each month), or

b) keep paying the mortgage for the next 23 years, get no income from the property, but invest that $240,000 lump sum elsewhere (probably another rental property at 8-10% in this area).

What's the way to calculate which is the better option over the course of the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years?

Makes sense, thanks for the explanation.  

Got it.  Unless I missed it, I don't believe I said anywhere in my post that I wanted to 'defraud' the government.  I did however indicate that I was curious to know how it worked - since I haven't encountered a Homepath property in my investing career yet.  Been in 'this industry' for some time - own multiple multi-family and apartment buildings so I'm not just 'getting started'.  Thanks for the response anyway.

Quick question.  A Fannie Mae Homepath property popped up near me.  My realtor says I need to wait 3 weeks before we can make an offer as an investor.  

1) Are offers during the initial 3 weeks limited to first time home buyers only?  If not, who is that period restricted to?

2) How do they verify that offers during the initial 3 week period are actually being made by the restricted group, and not an investor?  In other words, what prevents investors posing as home buyers to get an early offer in?

Thanks!

I have an apartment building on Main St. in Poughkeepsie.  It's a rough area still.  Lots of drugs and petty crime (and big crime but just don't walk around at night and you're fine).   Main street particularly is bad, a couple blocks away and you can find much safer areas.  There's certainly money to be made on buy/hold rentals though, if you can find one that doesn't need a ton of work up front.  I do believe that as people are coming up from the city, the whole area will begin to appreciate (fishkill, hopewell, poughkeepsie, etc.).  It'll take maybe 10-15 years though, Poughkeepsie itself still has a negative population growth.  I do see the signs in the outlying areas though - East Fishkill is picking up, Hopewell is picking up also.  Lots of land that have previously been vacant or ignored are now being sold with pre-approvals for shopping centers and condos.  We're still a ways off from a growth spurt, but I do believe it'll happen within the next couple of decades.

Perfect, thanks for the advice!

I own a 7-unit apartment building, and attached to my building are two un-occupied buildings of similar size.  Both buildings have been abandoned for some time, but still look OK from the outside.  I found the LLC name and registered address of the two buildings, they're both owned by the same LLC.  What's the best way to contact and approach the owner about a possible sale?  Hard to present an offer without seeing the inside, but I'd like to at least get a dialogue going, see if they might be interested in selling.  I have only a mailing address - no phone or email.  Do I just mail a personal letter, or is there a better way to do it?