All Forum Posts by: Rick Imby

Fairly simple metric on house prices.  If inventory is low prices go up, if inventory is high prices go down.  

First rule of cosigning---never do it.   Second rule---follow rule one.  You will not have control over the payments made on the loan and if they are missed you will have to make them and your credit will be damaged.  You may end up donating a lot more to this non profit than you intend to.  Use your credit to buy a rental property that will pay itself off and you will own it.  Or buy the property in question and lease option it to the non profit.  That way if the non profit falls apart you have control of the property.  

You have owned them for seven years and you have not built up significant equity?  My commercial property loans were written for 15 years so by year seven I had significant equity.  Try multiple banks with your experience you should be able to find one that will not need a cosigner.  Good luck.  Build up a really good presentation to take to the bankers.

PMI payments you will never get back. They are simply an expense on top of your interest rate. You forgot to mention the property payment will be significantly higher with only 10% down making the pmi much more expensive short term and long term. Good luck

My largest security deposit was $5k on a 500k commercial property.  This sounds really fishy to me.

I would talk to a local lawyer.  They absolutely do owe you back rent.  I do not think there is a moratorium on suing someone who owes you money.  

A friend lived in a very nice Dodge Grand Caravan, a small storage rental, and a planet fitness membership for a couple of years while saving up/payiing off.  You are on the right track,  Have you checked our rooms for rent on Craigslist?  

Getting water and sewer hooked up will be expensive---you will have to have a separate electrical connection added to to split utilities.  Before even thinking of this you must check with the local zoning to see if it is even allowed. $35 to $60k probably.  Good luck

Unless you own a trailer court mobile homes are not a good investment.  They do not go up in value.  I have two houses that were built in the 1950s (70 years old) that are still premium places to live.  Show me a 25 year old trailer that is worth as much as they paid for it.  Single family home with good maintenance will always be the preferred place for people to live.  

Great project. Get your loan approval and buy your next house as soon as allowable. The benefits are so great to the VA loans that you just have to use them. Find a good property management company for your houses while you are still in the area. I would keep the rentals there after you leave as 1031 exchanges must be done exactly right, one little mistake and you will owe a bunch of taxes. Get a professional realtor and accountant to help with the 1031 if you do one. When I was in ROTC my Colonel had three rental houses from past locations. He had worked really hard to pay them down as fast as possible. Good luck