All Forum Posts by: Robert Rodriguez

I have been doing my research on BP for HELOCs.   I wanted to post this to check my knowledge and see if i am grasping everything correctly along with find out the different exit strategies and results of the exit strategies.

So i learned if i have a primary house and have been paying down the equity i might be able to open a HELOC. Lets say the house is worth (according to the appraisal) 250k and i have 100k left on the loan. That means a HELOC at 80% of the LTV i would get 100k with an adjustable interest rate. I also learned that I will have to make payments on the HELOC but only on the interest until the agreed upon time (in which i will then have to pay P & I). From reading on BP i hear people mention use the 100k to get another property that needs rehabbing so for argument sake I purchase a house for 20k and put 50k worth of repairs into the house. Now i need to refinance or sell the house.

If I sell the house for 150k then i take 70k and pay off my HELOC. Am i allowed to pay off the HELOC at this time?? or do I have to wait until i can pay P & I?? I have to assume I would pay capital gains tax on the profit because i can't do a 1031 exchange since i will use the profit to pay off the HELOC. Or can I still do a 1031 exchange if i take 70k to pay the HELOC and the other 80k to get another house??

If I refinance and the house is now worth 150k. I would put tenants in after the rehab. I would then use 70k to pay back the HELOC. Then what do i do with the 80k? Do i put it into the mortgage of the newly refinanced home? Or do i use the 80k to get another house?

I think i may be struggling with the mindset of having a mortgage and having a paid off house.  If i take the 80k and get another house that will be three house now but the second house now has a higher mortgage and further from me paying it off.  Again as a beginner i see this as a problem but maybe it's my mindset and my goal should be on having no debt (or paid off houses).

^ edit **Turning nothing into something**

Thank you all for your responses. Yes I just finished reading your blog. To be honest I like the idea of flipping because I like turning something into nothing. I like to get my hands dirty and look back and say I did that... Now actually doing a flip, I have never done and may think it is way too much headache after I finally do complete one. Obviously with little cashflow, wholesale is where I should be and selling my only source of cashflow (even though it's only 200$) might not be the best bet.

I believe this has all come from me getting discouraged. Me not being able to find a good enough wholesale deal at .65 cents on the dollar. Yet my email is being flooded with people trying to sale their wholesale deals that they have found. Granite just because they say it's a deal doesn't mean it actually is... Hopefully, i turn over the right rock soon enough.

Thanks All

So I currently have a rental profit that is bringing in 200$ profit. Its a 3 yr old house. This is all I have experience wise when it comes to real estate investing. I am currently trying to perform some wholesale deals to create some cash flow so I can get more into the flipping field (whichis my passion). My question is should I continue to try and find wholsale deals (haven't found any good deals so far but only been 2 months), should I purchase a property and hold for more income (monopoly style, 4 houses then trade in for a hotel), or should I sell my house and use the money from the sell to by houses and flip?

Steve H. Welcome to the forum. I too am a Newbie to the REI in N. Va. I have been reading up on things for the past three years and now that I am finishing up my Masters, figured it was time to pull the trigger on investing. My heart is in flipping but need to build capital first. Would also like to be included in any meetup... help create a win-win for each other.

Has anyone here ever used a virtual assistant? If so can you tell me how your experience was and about how much you paid for one? I am looking into a VA to answer my calls from my bandit signs and direct mail. I figure I could give them a script of the information I was looking for and they could weed out the people who were just calling to yell at me, or didn't have deals I would be interested in. So has anybody ever used one?

So I have yet to find a mentor in my area, but will be going to my first REI Club this week. Until I do get a mentor I figured I could ask questions on here. I live and plan on rehabbing houses in the Northern Virginia area. I've been reading people's post and I hear them talk about making sure the title is free and clear. How or where do I go to research this? I also have herd of going to the county website or court house and see who is buying all the houses with cash and in what area. Well I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go for that either.

Some have said that you MAY be able to find the information on a website... well here is a website for one of the county's near me: http://www.pwcounty.org/ or http://www.courts.state.va.us/courts/home.html are the links i'm looking for somewhere on here and I just don't know it?

Would I need to check every counties website? Same goes for courthouses, would I need to go to every counties courthouse?

Not looking for someone to do the leg work for me, just figured I have used the ignorance excuse long enough and would like to find out how to get this information.

Thank you

If you do happen to start a blog... please let me know. I enjoyed reading what you have done so far. From one beginner to another

As mentioned, I will not give up I will continue to fight. As far as bandit signs go should I placethem around neighborhoods(saying we buy houses) even though I don't have properties right now? If people call them what should I say? Just get information about the type of houses they're trying to invest in Or trying to sell? Where can I find information about where I can place my bandit signs without them being taken down or a call from the city?

I too am in Virginia and I did an FHA+ loan about 2 years ago. I put in 2k in points to get my interest rate a little lower and went to closing with 0$. Actually at closing they wrote me a check for 2k. Was nice to not be renting anymore, not have to pay mortgage for a month and a half and receive a check for 2K. This was on a new construction home so the builder paid the other half of the closing costs.