All Forum Posts by: Matt Anderson

@Nolan Gottlieb

Congratulations on this success! Hopefully it is bringing you some strong cash flow.

I'm interested in hearing more about the lessons learned from the HML - what specifically did you learn about the draw process that surprised you? I am interested in also doing a BRRRR on a small multi but am intimidated by the idea of a HML (likely because I haven't educated myself enough on it).

@Michael Cioffi

I’m looking at buying my first multi family in the near future, and it’s my understanding that it’s more likely than not I’ll need a 25% down payment instead of 20% but I’m sure there are opportunities to find the 20% down you’ve got here. I’d gladly welcome folks to tell me I’m wrong on that though!

You could maybe also fine tune some of your estimates by looking at your specific markets vacancy rate, appreciation data, tax history on the specific deal, etc.

@Daniel Kevin Lara

I rented by the room in my first house hack and basically just looked at comparable rents for entire units (similar property types, looking on Craigslist and Zillow for the most part) and divided by the number of rooms I was renting, then maybe adjust up or down based on the quality of your property.

@Brad Jacobson this sounds like a great strategy. Are you calling PM’s you already have established relationships with, or would you also do this when evaluating new markets you don’t yet have property in? Without the existing relationship, I’m wondering if they would be willing to help when you simply cold call new companies.

@Chris Sweeney

Agree with this, had a similar experience recently with some insane readings that effectively worked out to flushing the toilet 600 times a day, every day for a month. Where I live in Virginia (I’m sure it’s similar other places, so apologies if this isn’t helpful), the water company does drive-by meter readings that are apparently prone to interference and thus bad data. Now I take an extra second each month to pay a little more attention to my water bills so we aren’t overpaying.

@Andrew Centeno

Another vote for house hacking here. Helped me get personal finances in a much stronger place to continue investing from a position of strength (as Scott Trench would say), while learning the ropes in a pretty low risk way. I’ve now actually done it twice and love the strategy.

@Monique Pett

In the market where I have my out of state rental (former house hack), Craigslist is popular for people listing rentals, so I check listings there and on Zillow. If I go check-in every 1-2 weeks, I can get a sense of how long it’s taking to fill vacancies. I cross check that against what my realtor and other local folks I have relationships with tell me about where the neighborhood is trending, as well as rent-o-meter and searching for high-level rental data/trends. This all gives me a pretty good idea of what I can get.

Thank you! We did consider this idea. Ultimately, we felt like we wanted to get this paid and totally behind us as soon as possible, so we have aggressively been paying these down. Maybe not the most mathematically optimal solution, but we will be proud to pay it all off fast and never have to think about it again. Should also help our DTI to get this out of the way. Plus, we are getting pretty close savings wise to be able to pay off the student loans AND have a down payment, so that should be best of both worlds!

Does anyone have recommendations for a 95% LTV refi for a primary residence? Hoping to get a better rate, and having serious customer service issues with current provider. Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

We saved enough cash to pay off nearly $50k in student loans (still waiting to make that big payment, in case of an unlikely student loan cancellation), while also positioning ourselves to soon be ready to make a down payment on our second rental/first multifamily!