All Forum Posts by: Nicholas L.

@Megan Callahan can you provide more details?  What type of property are you looking at and in what price range?  Will you self manage or get property management?  Do you own or rent your primary?

@Jayna Stevens I have to ask - do you have any cash of your own?  As others have said, hard money is not free - you're paying interest every month on the balance until you pay it off by refinancing, and if you can't refinance to cover the full balance is obviously still due. You need to be pre-approved for the mortgage you're going to take out before taking out the HML and buying the property.

And, if / when you refinance out, you still need cash for capex and repairs - something major might happen while you're in the process of renting out the property.  It's just not possible to do this with no cash at all.

@Matthew Swearingen can a calculator tell you "exactly what COC and passive income will be?"  Usually no, because you're using estimates for certain items.  You might know EXACTLY what your mortgage will cost, but on vacancy, capex, etc. you might be estimating.  Maybe they'll be higher, maybe they'll be lower.

I have a condo that I rent out, that I used to live in.  I basically break even every month but I'm keeping it because it's in a high-appreciation market.  I was much more certain on what my expenses were going to be on this unit because I lived there for 5 years.  

@Manda Gouvion house hacking is not for everyone, it's just a great lower risk strategy to get started.  

And, BRRRRing is more expensive than it seems - you have closing costs, financing costs, holding costs, leasing costs, etc.  Be sure to factor those into any analysis.

What are you going to do when your lease is up?

@Manda Gouvion you type @ and then the person's handle and it should show up as a hyperlink you can click.  If you're renting now, can you house hack when you're ready to purchase?  You get to be both an owner AND a landlord that way.  Congrats on the pending new arrival!

May the force be with you.  Always.

@Manda Gouvion these are great questions.  I have a few for you.

You said you "owned a house before" - do you own one now?

You said you're "wary on the hard money lender" - that's a very legitimate concern. The best way to BRRRR is with your own cash. Is that an option for you?

@Tj Derry no, there is no reason to wait solely because of the eviction ban.  Otherwise you'll never get started.  There are tons of posts on BP about how to screen tenants and changes in tactics to make because of the current environment.  But very few people are saying not to invest.

@Dariush Vaziri where are you located? How about Fredericksburg VA?

@Alaeddin Almubayed so if this is your first property, do you rent?