All Forum Posts by: William Murrell

You not only need to consider the interest rate, but also the associated fees with the mortgage.  As the old saying goes: "what the large print giveth, the fine print taketh away."    I'd recommend you shop the rate no matter what. 

Smaller banks beat bigger banks almost every time when it comes to trying to get a partner-like relationship going.  The bigger ones don't really have as much incentive to care about you as anything more than a number.

Welcome to the forum!  Make sure you listen to the Biggerpocket podcasts.  They're free and an invaluable resource for learning how to do different aspects of real estate investing.  Good luck!

If the other ones in the area have 1 bathroom, when the brokers run the comps they will show yours as comparatively more valuable.  But you're right to question whether the increase will be enough to cover your investment to install it.  Tough call.  Good luck!

The refinancing part is traditionally done with a bank. It does not have to be the HML and I wouldn't recommend that you do it with them. It's too expensive. Try to only use them to tie up deals that you otherwise can't finance. Think of the BRRR like this: buy a house for 100k. Let's assume for sake of argument and easy numbers that you have 100k note on it. You fix it up and it's now worth 150k. You then would get a note for 150k. That additional equity (the 50k) is now in your pocket and freed up for you to invest in the next deal. The hard money would only really enter this if you were trying to tie up the deal because you couldn't get that first 100k note.

Just my $0.02, but I would definitely add it.  

1)A house with one bathroom is only one problem away from an emergency (read: potentially very expensive) plumbing repair bill.  If you have two, they can always use the other one until you fix the first one the next day at normal rates.  If they only have one, their emergency will be yours until you fix it. 

2) Adding a bathroom isn't insurmountable, but it can be very involved.  If the house is on a crawlspace, it's much easier because you can get up under the house for the plumbing.  If it's on a slab, you'll need to concrete saw and jackhammer out a trench in the floor for drainlines and then reconcrete and retile.  It's not impossible, but it can be very expensive.  It's not something I'd recommend you try on your own unless you already knew and understood everything I just said in this paragraph.

3) The house is going to be worth more when you go to sell it. Always have an exit in mind, even if you're doing buy and hold.

Good luck!

Unless you're applying for a ton of credit cards, you don't need to worry that much about having the inquiry.  It will ding your credit slightly, but not enough to make or break lending decisions in the future (assuming you already have decent credit.)  And truthfully, you can use that credit card to actually help your credit if you.manage it well.

And no, that's not a problem to use your financial standing as the guarantor. That's actually the norm.  You're not going to get credit for a brand new business without a personal guarantee. 

Well, if you're doing it just to make sure you can get it before the deal disappears then that's fine, but don't try to keep the debt on the line long term. You can close the deal and then cash out refinance to a much lower interest rate. Then you can zero out and use the LOC again for the next one.

Impossible to say without knowing the cost of repairs and the ARV. As little as possible for sure because fire damage can be tricky.

Impossible to say without knowing the cost of repairs and the ARV. As little as possible for sure because fire damage can be tricky.

I have run into similar situations and I always am careful to never work for someone like that again.  If a customer doesn't respect the fact that you are entitled to a fair profit for work completed, they'll just badger you and nickel and dime you on every project going forward.   Spend the time you'd waste working for this guy finding more work from your good clients. Just my $0.02.