All Forum Posts by: Ryan Jackson

Being from Northern California, you need to go a bit farther than SF in central California to be in Northern California. That being said, SF, Monterey, Berkeley, etc. are nice. I like Paso Robles for wine country. It is less snooty for us workin' folk.

I am in need of a solid HVAC contractor to replace the A/C in my SFR in Virginia Beach. The scope of the work should be relatively simple and not require replacement of ducting. Thanks for the time!

Is there a way to guarantee payment of the liens by placing money in something similar to an escrow account due at closing, negotiate the short sale and then flip the house yourself to recoup the extra cash required? Just an out of the box idea that might not be feasible.

Don't count on that oilfield job for several years with the current economy. Shale production is not as profitable with current crude price, if at all, and OPEC is more than happy to run them out and suck up the loss. It could also turn around and be a non-issue, I would have an exit plan for the current job if it disappears.

@Ross Ellington There will be a VA funding fee. You will have to research the current rate, but it is due at closing and does not count as a down payment. That fee can be rolled into the loan.

I can tell you that I wish I had been knowledgeable enough to use my VA for a multifamily home when I was younger instead of a single family home.

You can buy up to an official 4 unit home as it will still be a conventional home loan. You will have to look up the max amount for a VA loan in your area, being Texas it is probably the baseline which is around $416k. You can still buy a property above that amount but will have to make a down payment on the amount above the baseline. I have seen this referred to as a Jumbo VA loan.

Check on the ins and outs of this but I believe you can also have multiple VA loans for multiple properties working within the baseline amount. Theoretically you could have 4 $100k properties.

Another positive thing about VA loans is that they do not reassess your loan if you refinance it. This allows you to get better terms down the road even if the market goes bad and you have negative equity on paper. Hopefully this will not be an issue in the near future, but it saved my bacon.

When you decide to sell you can have another Vet assume the loan to benefit from the lower rate you have locked in. This could be a huge selling point in the future when rates rise to their equilibrium point without the government establishing a rate ceiling via policy.

If your spouse is a vet you can each use your eligibility individually.

The potentially negative things: You have to live in property for at least a year. They will execute their own due diligence to insure it is not a bad investment and may disagree with your assessment. (This can also benefit you by driving down the price.)

I am sure there are many brokers in the BP community who can give greater detail.

What about tax advantages? As someone who works full time and has a SFR I do not get much of a break on the expenses, repairs, and improvements due to my income and status of not being a full time real estate professional. Any members or CPAs in the BP world know if the tax advantages work out better having an LLC? I have seen some posts that claim it works out the same in either situation, I just find that hard to believe with the pre-tax dollar advantages of corporations.

@Bill Gulley 

I have always been under the impression that having a low current balance to max balance ratio was beneficial for lending. This shows that you do not excessively use your available revolving credit and that you have a buffer to absorb emergency spending. This would indicate a higher available balance is a good thing to have. Closing accounts supposedly can impact your credit score as well. I am not familiar with lending on a massive scale for REI, this may only apply to personal lending.

Does "Shipping to USA only" include FPO/APO addressees in regards to the BP store? This is specifically in regards to The Book on Flipping.

Is it feasible/legal to be an independent licensed real estate agent in all states? I believe I saw some regulations for Virginia stating you had to work for a licensed broker or be one yourself, which required working as a licensed agent for X number of years. What are the disclosure issues if you are representing yourself as an agent in a real estate transaction?

And I personally believe we are still on topic as it is based on the assumption that you may need to be a licensed real estate agent to excel in REI. Just my rookie opinion.