All Forum Posts by: Ryan Chase

Hey James, welcome to BP!

Welcome, Chad!

I appreciate all of you sharing your experience and creativity. I'm so glad I came across Bigger Pockets! This gives me a lot more clarity about our situation and some of the potential moves we could make from here.

Taking things in a slightly different direction, do you recommend 30-year mortgages? When we took out our 15-year, our mentality was to get the lower interest rate, increase our principal payments, and pay off our house as quickly as possible. Now that I'm thinking about investing, I'm starting to think differently about leveraging our money. The lower monthly payment of a 30-year would mean more cash available to put toward potential investments. I realize there's not a one-size-fits-all, but I'm curious if that's the way most of you think about your own homes.

@Eric Black Thank you! You answered the big question that I couldn't figure out how to word. I was wondering how primary residence was measured. So apart from a seller financed deal, my option would be to try to restructure our first home as an investment loan?

Thanks for the tip, Neil! I'll look into that.

@Destiny Fargher - Yeah, I should've clarified. If we kept it as a rental, I would want to convert to a 30 year to reduce the mortgage payment. We wouldn't cash flow with the current payment. So is it technically possible to get owner occ rates on this home now and then on the new home we would move into? We don't have any other debt and could make it work with our debt to income ratio.

@Eric Black - I mentioned a seller financing type of scenario to my wife and she asked why that would be preferable to simply selling it outright and walking away with our equity. I wasn't sure what to say. I'm just trying to figure out a way to start building our portfolio, but I'm not set on keeping this one if it's not the best move.

My name is Ryan, and I just joined BP this week. I want to get into REI and I'm looking for some help figuring out whether/how to pull off a house hack.

• We currently own a 3bd/2ba split level, appraised around $168K two years ago. 
• We have a 15 yr mortgage at 2.75% and owe $118K. P&I payment is $947, plus $282 to escrow each month ($1229 total). 
• We have $30K cash available and two incomes. (But some of that cash is in our "emergency fund", so I don't think we would want to put all of it toward our next home.)

Here's what makes our situation challenging: We have twin sons (3 yrs old) with a severe disability. They have trachs, ventilators, and feeding tubes, and require 24/7 nursing care. A split level is terrible for wheelchairs, so we are looking to build a custom home that accommodates the boys.

If we didn't need to move ourselves, I would start looking for rental property. But our immediate need is a home that works for us. So I'm trying to learn what I need to do to keep our current home and turn it into a rental. Similar properties in our neighborhood rent for $1425, but conservatively, the range is $1100-1350.

My question: How do I leverage our current house? I've been reading about HELOCs and Refinancing, but I'm not sure how to calculate those potential payments so I can figure out cash flow. I want to talk to some local lenders, but I'm not even sure what questions I should be asking. Is it even possible to use a HELOC or cash-out toward a down payment on our next home?

Thanks for sharing your time and knowledge!

@Aaron Junck - I'd love to hear about and meet with any of the REI groups in Sioux Falls. Thanks!

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the welcome! I'm encouraged to start networking with locals who know what they're doing.

My name is Ryan Chase, and I stumbled upon the BP podcast and community today. I'm a high school teacher and I own a photo booth rental business. Real estate investing has been an interest for over a decade, but I've lacked the knowledge, experience, money, and confidence to get started. I'm excited to learn from the rest of you!