All Forum Posts by: Guevara M.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense.  

Back in early of 2004 I purchased a small 1 bedroom, 1 bath condo not knowing anything.  Purchased it for $36K, 30 year note @ 6.125%.  As of today I still owe about $21K and have been wondering if it makes any sense to try and refinance that amount to a 10 year fixed rate to save some interest.  Would appreciate any advice on this.  

Interior needed new paint due to cheap flat paint that was used from the builder. There were scuff marks everywhere and no way to clean or touch them up. Exterior also needs paint and some stucco repairs. Carpets are old, worn and dirty so figured instead of replacing with new carpet that tile would be a better option. Friend of mine does tile work daily and will be doing it at a deeply discounted price along with the backsplash. Total cost to do everything I have talked about would be less than $7K and would really change up the house to compete with the other newer homes in my area.

I purchased my home new in 2009 and have plans on turning into a rental at some point. I still enjoy living in it but I’m tired of some of the features and colors throughout the home. I already repainted pretty much the entire interior to a nicer color and did it myself to keep the cost down. Planning on having the whole exterior done next but will be paying to get it done and will be changing the colors from light beige and white to grays.

Currently I have four arch’s inside the home which separate the foyer, dinning room, living room and a hallway and for some reason I’m tired of looking at them. I recently started thinking of just removing the arch’s and making them all square. I know lots of people like the arch’s due to looking a little more elegant so would removing them hurt me in any way when I decide to start renting it out? Are arch’s still in style?

I’m planning on doing a DIY shiplap wall around my boring fireplace that won’t cost much and also painting all kitchen and bathrooms cabinets to a nice bright white to get rid of the outdated oak color. Will be updating the kitchen backsplash as well with something simple like subway tile. Carpet in the bedrooms will be coming out for new wood looking tile as well. That’s pretty much everything that I’d like to do while I’m still living in it. Just tired and bored of the 10+ year old design and colors.

Jake, I'm currently using Aceable Agent and so far it seems good. It's an online course so allows me to go through it on my own time. I used groupon for a discounted price for the school.

15 years ago I purchased a 1 bed/1 bath condo while I was still living at home with my parents but never had any intentions in living there. I had no bills other than my cell phone and one credit card. My cousin was a new relator at the time and kind of talked me into purchasing it. I knew nothing about REI and still don't know as much as I wish but I'm ready to actually buckle down, learn and do whatever I have to do to make up for all the years I wasted not being more serious about this. What I have learned is that I paid market value for the property at the time when I should have offered way less. After purchasing it I did a little work to it and started renting it out. I wasn't making anything off it though, just enough to pay all my expenses (I think). It did help me out a lot during income tax time though. A couple of years ago after my long term tenant decided to move out I decided to renovate it and put in about $10K of my own cash to make it look nice. I'm sure I overdid it but I have gotten nothing but great compliments on it from all the showings. I was able to increase the rent and have had it rented since then with one month of vacancy. I've been contemplating if I should sell it within the next couple of years to use the equity to fund a SFH or just continue to rent it out. I'd most likely be doing this through a 1031 exchange unless there is a better option. I do have plans on using a HELOC on my primary residence to use as a down payment for a SFH as soon as I have learned enough on analyzing properties. My strategy is to do the Brrrr method to hopefully start acquiring rental properties. I have between $50K-$60K in equity in my primary house. Can you guys take a look at the numbers on my condo and let me know what you think? Purchased it for $36K Payoff as of now is $23K Current market value is $60K Current expenses are: Principle, interest, taxes - $315 Insurance - $50 HOA - 180 Home warranty - $50 Rents out for - $825 I'm not sure how to do the vacancy rate and CapEx. Any help, advice, tips on how I could get into more rental properties would be much appreciated.

I've been considering a HELOC to try out the Brrrr method but I'm totally lost on doing all the calculations so it's going to take me some time to get a better understanding of it.

Thanks. I recently enrolled in online classes to try and get my real estate license but in the meantime I’d like to find an agent who deals a lot with investment properties.

I have a realtor who I have known for over 10 years and is now a friend of mine. She's a really nice person and is very good at what she does. I've referred many people to her who have all bought and sold with her and they have referred others as well. My only gripe is that she does not specialize that much in investment type properties so when I reach out to her and remind her that I'm interested in finding some good deals I really don't get much in return. Now if I run across something on the MLS listings and ask her to run the comps or look into it then she will do it for me as quick as she can. She's always available to answer any questions I have but just feel she might not be the right agent to help find some good deals. I've been considering reaching out to some other agents in the area to see if they could help but I feel really bad about it. As if I'm being not loyal to my agent/friend. There is a agent who some friends of mine use as a property manager who also has his own rental properties that I'd like to reach out to and another one that I always see with lots of foreclosure listings. Do you guys normally just deal with one agent or multiple ones?

Seasoned investors, for years I've been telling myself that I'm going to get serious about real estate investing and have never done it.  Years ago I did purchase a small 1 bedroom condo that I've been renting out but that's as far as I got.  I'm now 40 years old and done with all the partying where I wasted a ton of money that I could have invested and I'm now 100% serious about taking the next step in investing.  But I'm not real sure on what step I should take first.  I like the idea of flipping houses but I would also like to buy and hold with positive cash flow.  

I've been serching the MLS listings for the last couple of months just to get some ideas of what is out there and have seen some good deals from time to time but they usually get snatched up quickly. I'm trying to figure out if I should do a HELOC on my primary residence to use as a down payment on a SFH. My home is valued around $190K and I still owe $122K. I only have a total of around $25K-$30K saved and my local credit union does up to 95% of your homes value and its APR as low as 7%.

If you guys were in my shoes knowing what you now know after some experience in investing what would you recommend to get kick started?  Any ideas, stratagies, how to's, tips and tricks, advice, etc would be greatly appreciated.  If I can make it happen a smart way I'd like to get something within the next 6 months.