All Forum Posts by: Stu Basham

Hi Nelson Leal can you tell me a little bit about your refi and why you didn't need title seasoning? Was it because of using a HML? Does it just depend on the bank you use? Your rehab looks amazing you should be proud!

Hi everybody! Chrissy here. My husband and I bought a duplex in Journal Square and we are commuting into the city (only 15 mins on the PATH) and house-hacking. While our mortgage is not totally covered (which we know is the ideal situation!) it is still greatly reduced, and we are in an up-and-coming area of Jersey City. 

We got lucky though...we bought it with an FHA loan and it was difficult it get approved going up against so many cash buyers.

For our next property, we are looking to invest out of NYC - possibly Philly, Albany, or father parts of New Jersey. Does anybody have any suggestions for good areas of NJ past Hudson County? 

Thanks for the response @Linda Weygant!

Hi @Linda Weygant. I'm late to this conversation but can you elaborate on using your credit cards? Do you finance the purchase with them or just materials? Were these new card intro rates or do you get this financing ongoing after the 12 month intro rate? 

Thanks!

Thanks guys. No equity yet as we did an fha house hack loan. 

@Account Closed just sent you a PM. Thanks!

Thanks for the responses guys! Would you then wait on doing the renovations or take out a loan which payments would be about 500-600 per month and we'd still be able to save $1500 on top of that every month to build up our reserves.

Hi there,

I live in the Jersey City area but have been thinking about buying a cheap house in the Philly metro area as a BRRRR strategy project. I just talked to a friend at church who has a house in the Philly area (Croskey St between N 22nd and N 23rd st. He bought it right before the crash in 2008 for 28k and put 20k+ in rehabbing it. He had the same tenant in there from 2008 until 2015. He said it's been vacant since that time and he's just paying the mortgage every month without getting anything for it. He says he'd just prefer to dump it to an investor but he owes too much. He believes his mortgage is 45k and he just wants to break even on it. It's a 3br / 1 bath row house in decent shape. He's done some other repairs over the years but he said it's in a rough neighborhood.

He says he got $700 per month in rent for several years until the tenant stopped paying and actually worked it out with my friend and moved out. I suggested maybe considering a subject to transaction where I just take over the payments for him which would probably be 300-500 per month.

Comps I've looked at are anywhere from 25k-60k in as-is condition and renovated places go for 80-100k it looks like but I could be off. I just did a quick scan. Is this something I should look into or run away from? I wasn't planning on buying for a little while but if this is something to go after I would definitely do it considering it would be pretty low money down if anything.

Thanks!

Hi all,

I've been a member for a few years but don't think I've ever posted a new member introduction. I'm just getting back into RE after buying a house hack with my wife in Jersey City, NJ. We are in the Journal Square area. The property is an old duplex that we've put in about 40k or so. We replaced a lot of things (fixtures, electrical, drywall, ceilings, etc) and that was just on our bottom floor. The top floor had been renovated slightly when we bought it and we have a great tenant in there right now.

We are settling in now with our house but the kitchen hasn't really been touched except for appliances. The rest of the house also needs some other touches (fence, common hallway, fresh coat of paint outside). We need about 20k more in upgrades to make the place look really nice for future renters when we move out otherwise the kitchen will just be an eyesore compared to everything else.

I have tried to do many things myself (painting, trim, flooring, etc) which turned out ok but it doesn't have the WOW factor that I'm looking for. I get the job done but I'd be more happy if a contractor did it. We want to keep our savings in tact to possibly use for another property purchase maybe in Philly or CT. So I was exploring getting a personal loan of 20k to get the items done and that way it's done with and we can pay it off within 3 years or less. We'd still be able to save on top of the monthly payments for that so I'm not that concerned.

Long story short, would you pay cash for all the renovations and get it done with little to no savings left (we have about 14k in savings right now), or would you take out a loan and make payments on it while still getting all the projects done. The alternative is me spending my weekends for the next year toiling at household projects that I won't be happy with.

Thanks for reading all this and I'm curious to know your thoughts!

@Account Closed I like that you're analyzing a deal every day. I'm trying to do that as well. I like J Scott's 100 House Rule before diving in. Have you guys stuck with this number or have you learned from doing 20-30?