All Forum Posts by: Rusty Thompson

I would do it if I could get the money at 0%. Just make sure you have a plan to pay it off if there is a interest hike, say after 1 year. You will probably have to keep the money in your account for at least 90 days before the lender won't ask where it came from. At least in my experience they haven't need more than 3 months of bank statements.

Money is Money. It doesn't matter where it comes from, as long as its not unethical or illegal. If you can get a lower interest rate from you CC than you can from a HM lender then us the cards.

Personally I am going to wait until building codes change to require the installation of a certain sq.ft. of solar panels on every new construction. Which will drive the price down. it will also change the technology. Its never made sens to me to have fixed panels, mounted on a frame work, mounted to the roof. A house built with solar in mind would have a roof pitch optimized for solar & the panels would be used as the roof covering.

It's all inevitable unless a superior technology comes along.....

You might also want to look into the rules of your PMI. I know that mine is 5years & 80%. So even though my property is already bellow the 80% mark I still have to wait 2 more years to drop the PMI.

I'm a big fan of un-permitted work. Because it means that when whoever thought it was a good idea to save a couple hundred bucks on permits tries to sell it won't go conventional. I have picked up two very affordable properties because of people doing that exact thing. My advice is to contact the local, pull the permits & get it legal. Be warned, they may make you expose wires and pipes to verify the work was done to code.  As for proper egress, does it have a separate bedroom, or is it a studio? If its a studio then no worries on the window, the separate entrance meets egress if it opens on the outside. 

40hr a week Job. 

How many properties do you manage?

I currently manage 13 units. 5 houses / 8 apartments

How much time do you spend managing them?

As with the others, it rarely takes more than a couple hours a month to manage the properties. But sometimes the sky falls and you find yourself working every day after work & on the weekends getting things done. SFR's take much less time to manage and rent a lot quicker than multi's. Getting houses ready is the biggest hurdle while working full time.

At what point would you think about leaving your job or hiring a Property Manager?

I'm at that point right now, though we shall see how I feel after a couple months once things are stabilized.

@Carolina E. 

I would shop around for another lender. I have had the same problem in the past with a lender trying to squeeze a higher rate out of me. Its a unfortunate but true fact about RE. There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there trying to get every penny out of you possible. At the end of the day I choose not to work with those people & I advise others to not do so either. If you feel they are not working in good face you could always try going over their heads to see if the boss can help. 

You have the option to use another lender at any point in the transaction, also your appraisal can be transferred to another lender. I would tell you current lender that you want the current rate without a rate extension or you are going to go with a different lender. Some times they try to strong arm you into what is not in your best interest. 

I grew up the opposite of @David Roberts . I saw my parents lose  4 houses to foreclosure. Constantly putting bad debit in front of Bad Debt. Living far outside their means. But the result was the same, I was scared to death of detbt. I worked full time through college to pay for it in cash, Didn't have a credit or debit card into my late 20's. 

But I eventually went through a enlightenment where it comes to debt. Good debt is used to make money, bad debit is a creation to keep people enslaved. If you want the freedom offered you must learn to use debt correctly. 

I won't rent to anyone with a felony conviction less than 5 years old. I agree that they need some time out to see if they will re-offend. I don't want that test to happen in my unit.

I also change out locksets. I also only have a keyed deadbolt & I use the same brand of locks on all my properties. Makes it easy because I only have the deadbolt to change out. It also means I never get called because someone locked themselves out of their unit.