All Forum Posts by: Sergey A. Petrov

Run the numbers with the points and without the points over a period of time. The number you are looking for is interest paid. Your break even point is when interest paid+points equals interest paid without points. If you plan on holding past that point in time, it is worth paying points. If you plan on selling (or refinancing) before, it doesn’t make sense to buy discount points 

I don’t understand the dilemma. If a license to do business is required (in this case rental registration), all the owner has to do is go get one and get their business in compliance 

I think you’ll find that if you have your own agent representing you, that person will more than pay for themselves vs having the seller’s agent work the deal with you feeling like you shaved that few hundred bucks off commission 

Late fees aren’t revenue generators, they are meant to incentivize timely payment. If you are ok with no rent payment, the amount of the late fees is irrelevant. I am not familiar with TX laws, but bet you you’ll have a hard time justifying a $750 (or $1,500 if you choose to double it up in September) monthly late fee to a judge when the time to collect comes 

This doesn’t sound like a business decision question. If you and your wife can’t agree on something, posting on BP to get more “ammunition” to convince her is not the way to go. With that said, I’ll happily write checks for way more than $9.6k/year in exchange for our quality of life, my wife’s happiness and my own sanity. Talk to your wife and come to an agreement, don’t look for ammo on a public forum 

Yes there are but if your sole goal is hitting 5% today, it’ll get you there. It’ll be fixed for 3, 5, 7, or 10 years. You can refi out of it later if you wish

6.5% without points, high credit score, and other qualifications sounds about right. Do an ARM if you can find one in that range, pay some points, or get the seller to pay down your rate.

You have bigger issues to worry about if your identity was stolen. Work on that first, then worry about qualifying for the first time homebuyer financing 

We've done several STR transactions and have not found a way to "take over" Airbnb or VRBO with their nearly 5 star reviews. Always starting from scratch. A super host status helps though!

@David Zimmer - HELOCs are still out there even on investment properties and even going to 80% LTV with very favorable rates. The best advice I can give you is get on the phone and start calling local smaller banks and credit unions. You'll probably spend quite a bit of time on the phone over the course of the next two weeks but you'll find it.