All Forum Posts by: Rik Hunter

Sorry for the slow response, Bob. We starting renting it out in October and have only had about 6 days of vacancy that we use to clean the unit ourselves. 

We're on track to average $1400/month, while we had been charging $995/mth as a LTR. So, by that measure we're doing better and are on track to cash flow after the accounting for the start-up costs. 

The problem we're seeing 7 months later is that rents have risen in our area that an unfurnished apartment like ours is getting at $1200/mth. Accounting for our expenses to run the MTR means that a LTR and MTR are equivalent—while us doing the cleaning and lawn care. 

In our case, we can maybe squeeze out another $100/month on the MTR, but that's the tippy-top of market. 

I think Brandon Turner said it in a podcast, but you could ask for contact info for the last two landlords to avoid the problem you described.

I don't have an answer, but the Todd Baldwin podcast episode might:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

@Stephen E. Not a bad idea, but it's rented out. 

@Garvin Watson That's great advice. I'm in my second property, a SFH, and used a VA loan for it. Refinancing the duplex might make sense simply because I'd have it under a non-VA loan and could then go buy a new second home using another VA loan.

@Reid Chauvin Just a follow-up on the term. Are these always limited to 15-yrs? (And Navy Federal surprised with going up to 95% LTV.)

@Reid Chauvin thank you! That was helpful, and I'm finding the roughly 4% rates.

@Ashley Cross, thanks for this! I'll expect a higher rate and lower LTV.

@Tarik Turner I hadn't heard of this type of mortgage before, so thanks for that, but my current mortgage is at 3%. So, I'm not sure about how this would be to my advantage. I'm looking to cash-out to finance rehab on my current project. 

@Douglas Spence, I'm thinking that with USAA being a big bank that it's possible the person I spoke with was mistaken. This was the lowest level agent. I was pretty confused by them saying it'd need to be commercial, but I was unsure because I'm now paying local taxes at the "commercial" rate rather than the "residential' rate I had while living in it.