All Forum Posts by: Laura Levine

@Roy N. Sorry for the delayed response, somehow I missed your feedback.  I forgot to consider the idea of homeowner financing or a wrap loan.  I more or less understand the concept of the homeowner financing, but I'd have to look more into the wrap loan, I'm not very familiar with that.  Thanks for your input!

Hi @Charlie Fitzgerald, thanks for the tip, I'll definitely check out the article.  I understand what you mean about it paying for itself, I just get worried that with overages (our last reno, the budget doubled) that the fees/interest would eat into the profit too much.

Hi All,

I'm trying to get some feedback regarding what my next real estate move should be. 3 years ago, we househacked a condo that we now rent out and about 1.5 years ago we househacked a 2 family that we currently live in. We successfully added value (about 30% to the condo and about 25% to the house) to each property, but we used up much of our funds to complete the rehabs and already refinanced our house (which now has 13% equity). Currently we don't have a lot of cash in the bank, however our DTI is reasonable (mid-30%'s) and we have good credit (high 700's). I'm anxious to get my feet back in the game, but not sure where to start without much of a down payment or cash reserves available. We've considered flipping, but are a little wary of the rates and fees for HML, and are willing to engage in another house hack, but not sure we'll be able to get a mortgage. Any suggestions? Maybe a 203k house?

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for some advice regarding if it's possible to buy a 2 family without a down payment or a lot of cash in the bank.  We currently own a co-op that we rent out and are living in a 2 family where we rent out half.  We found another 2 family that we would love to move into, but after our major reno on the current place, we don't have money for a down payment.  We would easily be able to cover the mortgage and expenses month to month, but I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't qualify for a traditional mortgage with our current situation.  I'd love feedback on if there are any non-traditional methods for financing this, or if this is just a pipe dream for now.  Here's a breakdown of some of the numbers: 

-We have an income of about $120k without factoring in our rental income which adds another $36k.  We have been renting the co-op for 1.5 years ($500/m profit after expenses) and the 2-family for just shy of a year ($1475/m towards a $2485/m expenses).  

-We don't have enough equity to take a HELOC on the house, and due to some issues with the co-op association, a HELOC on that isn't possible either.

-We have good credit (upper 700's) and are currently at about 33.6% DTI with the two mortgages, student loans, and car loans (including the two rental properties).

-With the new house, we anticipate being able to rent the unit we currently live in for $2000/m (for a profit of $990/m after expenses) and approximately $1800/m anticipated in rent in the new house towards $4212 in monthly expenses.  If you add all the rental income together, we would be responsible for about $912/m of the new mortgage.

Thanks so much!

@Darren Sagerand @Kyle Penland Thanks so much!

Yes, I agree. We did it knowing that we were going to refinance as soon as we could. I do think you can reclaim some of the upfront PMI you have to put up though if you don't have the loan for 60 months.

@rafael - Thanks so much!  I will definitely reach out to him when we are ready to refinance!  We actually have a personal/construction loan with TD right now, but they were very conservative lenders, but I'll look at them.  

With the PMI - are you sure that applies to FHA loans?

@Eddy Dumire thanks for the feedback, thats a good point.  We have a pretty good cash flow, so the hope would be to pay off the heloc in a reasonable amount of time, then we would be back to the 20%...we're hoping that we actually have closer 25-30% equity, but we won't know for sure until we get the appraisal.

@rafael - Thanks again for your helpful feedback!  

I talked to our lender and they indicated that since it was a FHA loan, we are stuck with the PMI for the life of the loan....this is why we were looking at refinancing. We only had 3.5% down when we bought a little less than a year ago. Also, with the reno, our credit took a hit (we put a lot of the costs on credit cards that we are paying down now) so we qualified for something around the range of 4.5-4.75% with a 30 year. But that was just in talking with one lender. Do you have a lender or a broker you recommend?

@rafael - Thanks for your feedback! I was thinking about a HELOC, but wasn't sure if I should save that for when we want to buy another property in a couple years? Maybe that's the best idea though.

We do have a pretty good rate 3.75%, but I'm worried that by the time it expires (in about 4 years at this point) that rates will be significantly higher. Also, we're paying over $300/m in PMI that just seems like a waste? I keep getting offers in the mail about how the PMI rate was reduced to .85% in 1/15...do you know anything about that?

We haven't quite decided when we will move again, probably within 5 years though.  

I didn't think about the property tax escrow...can't I just use the money that's already in escrow with the current loan?