All Forum Posts by: Lamont Chen

@William Allen

When I started out I house hacked a duplex and rented out the other unit plus a room in my own. I did 20% down but in hindsight I could have done an FHA loan for the purchase. To mitigate risk lots of work is upfront ensuring you are aware of all the expected expenses like repairs, capex, vacancy, etc. in addition to having an emergency fund. With the added expenses and expected income you should have an idea if the deal is good for your circumstance.

Good luck!

@Sergio Velazquez

Never used Zibo but I currently use Cozy and love it. Majority of the features are free with ability to pay for certain services which expedite payment to your bank account, etc.

May not be what you were looking for but wanted to provide you with another option.

Good luck!

@Cody Stuck

I use cozy for my units. Its very efficient with tenants setting up payment on their end for monthly rent. I've never used the feature but they can request maintenance requests from the site too.

Cozy is mostly free but there are features you can pay to expedite rent money to your account, etc.

Good luck!

@Jake Burgdorf Certain banks may do what is called portfolio lending for those 3 properties. You can discuss with the bank rates and terms vs refinancing individually.

Good luck!

@Bryan Stocklas Ye for sure there are certain areas where cash flow may not be as great but depreciation of the property during tax time and appreciation could help in the long run!

Good luck!

@Bryan Stocklas You can connect with a local realtor which specialize in that area to see what the rental market is like. Sometimes more rural areas could have good school districts so there would always be rental demand. They should also be able to provide you average days rental listings are on the market for.

Also you can look at population growth year over year for the new target location.

@Tawanna R. You should speak with a lender in your area to look at options to refinance your investment property or do a Heloc depending if you need the money long term or short term. 

If you have a primary residence, you can think about refinancing that property instead because the interest rates could be more favorable for owner occupant.

@Jasmine Nguyen

Funny enough I am planning to do something similar. Only thing you should think about would be a large enough emergency fund to cover 2 monthly mortgages plus any repairs, etc. for 3 homes. Also depending on your strategy and with rates so low your DTI thus monthly burden may be lower if you did a 30 year mortgage refinance.

Also analyze the deal as well. Ideally with expenses (vacancy, property management, repairs, etc.) there should be cash leftover to pay for your mortgage refinance.

Good luck!

@Jared Chenel

You can potentially look for comparative sales for lots sold in the area (if any). From time to time vacant lots will go on sale for builders or developers to pick up.

Perhaps the 40k balance for 401k is over time so the person can contribute 19500 for 2 years back to back. I believe there are other ways to backdoor into a 401k as well to increase the balance plus any employer matches.