All Forum Posts by: William Murrell

The underwriting will be mostly the same at a credit union in terms of LTV. Helocs will be easier to get because they are secured by the house. An unsecured line of credit is going to be tougher since there's nothing the bank can take if you default. To that end, they'll make you demonstrate higher liquidity.

As for trying to show the banks you want to use the HELOC for buying a house, I'd caution against that. If you had experience and had done this before, they might see this as low risk. Since you haven't, they might get nervous. Which is not to say that they will outright deny you, but don't forget there's a subjective human aspect of underwriting. I'd just tell them you wanted a HELOC in case you need it for a major home repair.

Century 21 sweyer.   They do a great job.  Welcome to the area!

Culture shock, for sure.  I have gone the other way (from beach to city) and it's a big difference.  As for the approval, I would reach out and get confirmation first.  Having good credit like you mentioned is good, but they're not going to underwrite unless you have income to cover the debt service.   

In regards to how so many of us are popping up in this thread for Wilmington, we all have keyword alerts set up.  So anytime someone talks about one of our keywords like "Wilmington," we get an email.

+1 to house hacking. Pretty much your best option. I'd be interested to see how you got pre-approved for a loan on a 20k w2.  Credit score and investments are nice, but there still has to be income and you don't appear to have it.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread, but I'd like to add some more. Your best bet when it comes to finding good, quality advice is to solicit it from people who are making it happen in your geographical area since REI is so local. However, as someone who was born and raised here in Wilmington and now invests here, I can say that the first thing I noticed is that the majority of your comments are very negative about the area. Which doesn't really inspire those of us who work and invest here to want to help. In particular, I can't help but notice the comment about how you're from NJ "where people hustle," as if people don't in Wilmington. Since 20k a year is about half of the median income for this area, I'd say you're not hustling.  I'd recommend you take another side job or perhaps switch careers entirely to get your reserves and income up to get the ball rolling.  You can certainly invest with little or no money down, but it definitely helps to have more seed money.

I notice you also mentioned "no experienced investor I know of." There's a local REIA full of investors. And there's a ton of us locally who buy and hold, flip, etc. I think you've decided the area stinks before really doing your homework.

@Paul Georgia are you going to live in it?  If you are, you can pull your own permit.  If you intend to sell it within a year, you'll need to have a contractor.  

I re-read what you said.  You mentioned "if the seller is willing."  Are they offering seller financing?  If so, then you can put whatever you want in it because they're carrying the note.  If you can get them to agree to it, you can roll "one briefcase full of cash from the seller" into the note if you want.  You'll just have steeper debt service going forward the more you put in upfront.  

If you're trying to just go the more conventional route for financing and use a bank, then you're at the will of the underwriters as to what they'll allow you to put in the note.  

Sometimes you can depending on the loan.  There's an FDA program that allows for almost no money down which lets you roll almost all of the closing costs into the amortization of the loan.  That's for owner occupants only though, as far as I know. 

Go spend a couple hundred bucks and talk to an attorney.  Let him/her figure it out.  Small price to pay to be sure of where you stand.

Listen to the podcasts and read the recommended list of books.  By the time you finish that, you'll be well-versed in a host of different techniques and strategies and will be better suited to handle the first deal when you find it.  It is the cheapest, most efficient way to get the education you need to succeed.  Good luck!

Use the @ tag and maybe you can catch his attention for the good feedback!