All Forum Posts by: Lloyd Stein

John, thanks for the reply. Yeah, I was taken a little back by the guy and the conversation left me confused. Can I ask you, when you do that initial loan, do you try and get a shorter term loan with a lower APR, with the idea that once you refi you can get a longer term (i.e. 15 or 30 year fixed)?

Thanks again,

Lloyd

I'm a newbie and the other day I was on the phone with a mortgage broker and when I asked him about rehabbing and refinancing he told me it wasn't a smart move. He said the cost of the refi might end up eating up any cash I could take out and he highly warned against trying to pull it off.  So here I am, wondering, is he right? Does the refi after you get a reappraisal (which hopefully gets the value of the property higher) end up taking too much money of my pocket? 

And, because the plan is to refi after a quick fix-up do you go with a shorter term mortgage (i.e. 5 year arm) to keep things even lower cost? I always opt to lock in the longest terms I can.

Thanks,
Lloyd

Thanks everyone. Great information and suggestions!

I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. 

So I've built this excel document that does rough calculations of 2% test, Cap Rate and CoCROI and while I'm pulling most of the numbers from sources I can find (realizing they are not exact, but in the ballpark), the one thing that keeps tripping me up is how to estimate utilities.

I know that every building will have their utilities set up differently. Sometimes the landlord just pays for water, sometimes water and gas, etc, and then each state is gonna be different (I'm looking in Ohio), but is there anyway to get a decent handle on utilities...at least enough to get a number for initial calculations?

I have a feeling the answer was "no", but figured I would throw it out to the experienced investors to see how they do it.

Thanks,
Lloyd

Wow...okay...like most things not a totally clear cut answer.

Thanks for the reply!

And that is why I ask the forum! I knew I was missing something...I think it's called experience.

Thanks.

So I've been looking for a good property for a while and I've always focused on buying a fourplex, with the reasoning being that if one person moves out, I'll only be out 25% of my monthly gross until I can get a new tenant. But then I've seen some pretty good duplexes lately and I started wondering if all things being equal (price, revenue, expenses) is there any downside to owning 2 duplexes over 1 fourplex? And assume I will hire someone to manage these properties because I would live out of state.

Thanks.

Lloyd

Thanks, really appreciate the thoughtful response.