All Forum Posts by: Sam Fickel

Starting a new LLC would be impossible to get a loan. Unless you get the loan under your personal name, there's no history showing that you can qualify for a residential mortgage. I can't speak for commercial lenders, but I'm pretty sure they need to see 2 years of cash flow in the LLC as well.

If you are on the loan with each other, then both of you are hit with 1 loan. So if you're on all 10 together, then you can't have any more. But if you are not on the loan together, you could get to 20, assuming you still qualify 

Why wait 12-18 months? That's a long time for funds to be tied up when you could be cashing out much earlier and moving on to other deals. You only need to wait 6 months

The only time you need to be related to your Co-borrower is on an FHA loan. Otherwise there's nothing stopping you from being obligated on the loan together as partners.

Congratulations! Y'all are in an excellent position here. I like to say "Mo' money, mo' options"

If you're flipping, definitely use a HELOC. But anything long term, you'll want to use a cash out refi.

A Heloc is going to have a higher rate, but as a line of credit, it offers you more flexibility by letting you use it over and over again. This is perfect for flips. Do what you need to do, and pay it off.

If you want to do buy-and-hold or BRRRRs, then there are 2 options for that refi portion - refi the subject property, or refi your primary residence.

Personally, I'm a big believer in having $0 personal debt, but unlimited debt paid by others. Even though the rate is higher for an investment loan, I would personally be more comfortable knowing that the debt is being paid by a tenant and my house is still paid off, than to get a better rate by refinancing my house so I could own an investment property free and clear. Plus, I'd rather use the equity in my home to max out a HELOC to create the opportunity to build wealth with the expectation of paying it back soon after.

Just my $0.02

@Ryan Chatman awesome, thank you so much!

Take out a loan against your 401k to do flips, treat it almost like a HELOC. That way you still have diversified assets (or, at the very least, debt against your own asset) AND you get the benefits of making money in real estate.

This is only if you actually want a 401k. The returns are pretty miniscule compared to what you can do in REI but they're also more long-term and slow-and-steady.

@Bruce Woodruff everyone's always talking about metrics like cash kn cash return, ROI, NOI, cap rate, IRR, etc.

Is any of that crucial to know, or is it more for conversation?

@Paxton Corwin when you shop around, make sure you know what you're shopping around for. There are 3 different types of lenders - brokers, retail, and depository.

Brokers work with multiple wholesale lenders. Some have wacky overlays, some can do really creative stuff. Some have lower rates, some are very streamlined. Your broker determines the best fit for you.

Retail lenders do most everything in-house, from origination (your loan officer) to underwriting, to funding, and even servicing. They only have 1 rate sheet and 1 set of policies to go off of, so it makes it much easier to memorize guidelines and you get an intimate feel for what an underwriter wants because you know them from previous deals.

I got my start as a broker but it wasn't the right fit for me. I've been a retail lender for nearly 2 years now.

A depository lender is a lender at a bank or credit union. They are most likely to help you out with creative financing as the presence of checking and savings accounts allows them to have enough coffers to maintain loans on their books (called portfolio loans). These loans aren't sold to Fannie Mae, freddie Mac, or Ginnie Mae like the other two lenders I mentioned. So this is where you'll find a lot of those land loans, construction loans, HELOC products, MFH on rented lots, ITIN loans, etc. As well as commercial stuff.

@Joe Villeneuve oh yeah, I'm very comfortable on Excel. I've made amortization tables for my business and use it in some capacity or another almost every day.

I just don't know what to put in there. Or what all information I should be looking for when analyzing properties, hence why I want to get a feel for a standardized version before designing my own, if that makes sense