All Forum Posts by: Sarkis Gezalyan

Hello all , 

Newbie here trying to understand how many mortgages I will be stuck with. Let's say I have a million dollar home, with 500k equity in it. I would like to pull this out with a HELOC and put it as my down payment for a second home for a buy and hold strategy. If this HELOC matures in 10 years, will I be stuck paying three mortgages? One for my first house, one for the HELOC converting into a regular mortgage, and one for the second investment property?

Hello all, 

I've been reading on construction loans but I believe I'm missing the "obvious". To make it easy, let's say I'm looking to buy a 800k home, and expecting to add about 200k worth of work. Can someone help me understand how a construction loan would work in this situation? Would my total loan be for $1million? 

Also, how does the bank cap you off? Do they take a percentage of what YOU think the ARV would be?

@Jonathan Styer I see, that's exactly what I was confused on. I thought it would be extremely beneficial cash-flow wise to make sure you get that lower rate. 

Hi everyone! I've been reading about ways to acquire a second property while holding on to my primary residence, but there are so many people with so many different ideas. Some complicating, some simple. What doesn't make sense to me is that at this current time, rates are so low that a cash out refinance isn't going to seem possible for a long time if you already bought a house at these incredibly low rates (am I correct here)? So to purchase my second property, which I will treat as an investment and rent out, what would be my best option? I've looked into HELOCs, but the fact that they have the repayment period and variable interest rate isn't going to help me out with cash flow when it comes to the high Los Angeles pricing. Thank you for the responses ahead of time!

@Cameron Tope

Thanks for the response Cameron, here’s another scenario. If I want to take some money out with a heloc for some remodeling, would I have to get a quote from a contractor for example, THEN take the loan out? And what if I take out more than I needed?

Hello all,

Couple questions here when it comes to the best option to purchasing a second home or investment property. Between a heloc and home equity loan, which one would you do and why? I understand that with the heloc I’ll have variable interest rates, but how bad would that be? Also another question is the timing of all of this. Do I take out my loan first, then look for properties to buy? With a home equity loan this would be more difficult since I would have to pay immediately....any input will do. Thank you

@Marlen Weber I did for a while but figured the distance would be really hard to get by. Having to build a team and getting familiar with an area takes a lot of work and judgement.

Hello everyone, quite new to investing but have been reading the forums and watching the videos on BiggerPockets. My question or concern is, all these people who are investing are talking about quickly turning around their first investment into multiple units and they get the ball rolling either through cash flow or appreciation. In my market (San Fernando Valley/Los Angeles), I can't wrap my head around this. Everything I run the numbers either requires a large down payment and at a lower than average price. I guess my question is, do other beginner investors notice that getting the ball rolling in Los Angeles is much slower than other parts of the country?

Hello all,

I have a question on return on investment when expanding a unit. I have a 1+1 back house I’m renting out, but can expand it two bedrooms, or even add a second unit altogether. How can I calculate the return on investment to see if it’s worth doing it? Or even calculating when I will break even? Any input is appreciated, thank you!

@Bjorn Ahlblad

Thanks Bjorn, I understand I wasn’t thinking about escaping from taxes I just wanted to know if even a small thing like this is considered “rental property”. Thanks for your response