All Forum Posts by: Maria Bakaj

@Steve C. What is the location of this property?

@Besnik Kadriu Keep talking to different lenders until you find someone who will say yes.  Don't have them pull credit, but explain your situation and they should be able to tell you if they can help you or not.  Every lender is different, keep trying! 

@Daniel Parnell Have you spoken to your lender about this? Sometimes before you complete the initial purchase with the HELOC, you can working something out with the same lender to refi sooner. Regardless, you should speak with your lender, but I have also heard that lenders "would like" you to make at least 6 payments before you refi otherwise they get dinged/fined by investors. I don't know if that ding against the lender actually affects you, that's what you should also check on.

@Jay Styles You can make $15,000 work in Denver Metro on a single family home sub $400k.  If it is your first home purchase, you can potentially qualify for a 3% down conventional loan ( I have a lender that does these).  Closing costs are usually sub 4k.  You could easily House Hack this and be on your merry way.

@Jane S. Does it make sense to partition the property and sell it as 3 separate units?  Are there separate electrical meters and gas meters?  If so, I think the 3 furnaces is a plus.    If not, as an investor I don't find that attractive.  It's too costly to maintain and replace.

5 years ago my husband and I were under contract on a triplex that had 3 original furnaces in the crawl space.  The crawl space was one crawl space, not sectioned into 3.  While we ended up walking away from the property because it had too many other issues( we wanted to live in one unit), the property was ultimately purchased by someone who rehabbed it and sold it as 3 separate units.  If you can do that, I would throw in an offer even if it seems ridiculously low. 

@Antwaun Murray You're welcome. Keep me posted on how it's going!

@Antwaun Murray You need to market the zoning of the land and what the potential is. Can someone build residential, commercial, how many stories, units?  Once you've figured that out, see if you can find a comp where someone has bought land like this, with this zoning, and built this.  If you can find some numbers, even better.  If you define the purpose of the land that should help with selling it.

Without knowing all of your history, the only issue I potentially see is the fact that you're not working.  I would find a lender (or a few) and run this by them.  You can ask questions without them having to pull credit.  If they tell you they want to see more income from you in order to refi out, you can course correct and find some sort of a job now while you still have a few months.

@Adam Williams Erie and Colorado Springs have very different personalities.  I would recommend looking into that some more to make sure the location you choose fits your needs and desires for your primary residence. 

I personally tend to stay away from areas where there's a lot of land for new developments.  I'd ask yourself the question, "In 10 years why should someone buy my house if there's a brand new one with the latest styling and fixtures down the road for the same price or slightly more."  

From the ones you have chosen, I would pick the community that is closest to a city or where everyone is working. 

Since it seems like you are only looking at new communities, for the Denver/Boulder Metro area I would look into West Arvada.  There's new builds out there and it's that much closer to Denver, Broomfield, and Boulder where the jobs are.  In comparison, I feel the appreciation is better there but there's no certainty in appreciation. 

@Preston Freeman I have clients here in Denver Metro who use 3% conventional loans to purchase their house hacks. As @John Warren mentioned it is an owner occupied loan and you must have the intention to live in the property for 1 year. PMI goes away once you have 20% in principle paydown or equity. Besides that it's pretty strait forward.