All Forum Posts by: Steve K.

@Derek B.   I have good luck with Whirlpool dishwasher.  It has ECO mode and quiet.  Stainless steel interior allows me running hot water through it to sanitize.  But that's just personal preference.  ~$580 Home Depot with 10% off.

In a rental, stick with simple dishwasher because if circuit board goes, it won't be expensive to fix.  Samsung and LG are dicey.  I read online reviews that the circuit boards fry easily.

@Paul Spangler Maybe the mortgage broker has a typo. Or maybe that is lender's own guideline. According to FHA guideline, the property must be owner occupied within 60 days and for at least 1 year. FHA will not insure pure investment properties that it's not owner occupied. So 85% LTV on a pure investment property that's not owner occupied is irrelevant.

There is a 75% rental income limit for rental history less than two years when counting cash flow and assets.  For rental income more than two years, it will be according to financial statements or schedule E on tax return.  So for rental property income that has more than two years rental history, theoretically property can bypass the 75% upper limit when counting income.  

@Kelvin Schaeffer What are your goals to get refinance and then get a HELOC? If you are wanting to get equity out as cash, then just do a straight HELOC. If you want to get a better rate and also get cash out for next deal, then do a cash out refinance without HELOC. HELOC carries a higher interest rate.

@Gabrielle Woodard   One filter I use on differentiating a real "wholesaler" and someone who's pretending, is to ask the question "Do you have the property under contract?"

If the answer is "no" or "don't know", move on.

A real wholesaler who has a real workable deal will have the property under contract already.  Most likely with some of their own money involved.  It could be, $10, $500 or $2000 of earnest money.  Earnest money can be refundable.  If it's such a good deal and they believe it so much, then they will be willing to put the property under contract.  

@Samuel Propersi  Each credit reporting agency has slight tweaks to their FICO formula.  In general, if there are multiple mortgage loan inquiries within 30 days, FICO formula will aggregate these inquiries as one inquiry, because the mathematical model knows you are rate shopping.

How does the model know this?  Because each credit inquiry is tagged with a type characteristic.  Mortgage, auto loan, etc.

Plus FICO has a 30 day lag.  So if you are rating shopping starting from Feb 18.  The inquiries will not show up until March 18.

Anyways, just call 20 lenders within a week or so, and you'll be OK.  

Just my 2 cents.

@Kimberly Dawn   Also check out west Seattle, Burien, or Normandy Park for views.  Up north, try Everett and surrounding area.  Downside for Everett is that traffic is bad coming into Seattle in the morning.  Burien and Normandy Park is usually wide open in terms of traffic.  Good thing about Everett: It has Boeing and a naval station over there.  And it's going through some infrastructure renovation.  

@Thanh Nguyen  Welcome to BP.  One thing I've heard from other people about Seattle rentals, is that the city is requiring landlord registration plus heavy handed regulation on landlords.  I hear city regulations are favoring tenants tremendously that compliance is driving up rents or landlords are considering exiting the area.  Perhaps other Seattle landlords can chime in on this.  This issue can be mitigated with a competent property management company or with real good tenant screening plus rental lease agreement.  So take these factors into consideration when working the numbers.  Good luck.

A couple things you can look for when driving through communities to see if it's a suitable property.  Look at the vehicles parked on the streets or in front of the houses.  Do they look well maintained and look like newer vehicles?  Are there bars on windows?  Are there high fences in the front yard?  Every one has pit bulls?  Would you feel comfortable living there or would you put your family in the same building?  If you wouldn't live there, then you cannot "house hacking".  One of my co-workers lived in New Orleans and he could hear occasional gun fire in the night from where he lived.  It's not from gun ranges.  ;-)  

Here is a cool website that downloads Police's database for a particular area and put it on Google map.  Miami example.  http://www.spotcrime.com/fl/miami

Subscribe to alerts and look for places where assault or murder rates are low.  Good luck.

@Derrick Strope  Welcome to the community. REIA WA has some nice classes going on every month, and they have meetings in Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett.

There is a completely free Meetup group in for Snohomish County real estate investors.  "SnoCo Connected Real Estate Investors" is a smaller group that usually meets in a library.

Wholesale around Seattle is difficult because there isn't a lot of deals out there. Even the MLS inventory is low. Sellers know inventory is low and they are asking top dollars. Hitting 2% rule is difficult. Even if investors relax criteria to 1%, there aren't many deals to available.

It's not all bad news, however.  It's always a good time to build a list of investors and network.  Each investor has their own specific target area.  Good news is gas is cheap.  Weather is mild.  Do tons of drive by and get to know communities.  And then when something shows up, you'll be ready for action.

Good luck.

@Aaron Thivierge  One thing to look for is written lease agreement from each of the tenants.  Look for proof tenants are paying on time for the last 4 months.  A written and signed lease agreement will protect you in the future should you run into problems with the tenants.

Usually for someone to unload a cash flowing property is due to:

1.  To get rid of a problem

2.  Goofed up somewhere else and need money asap. e.g. divorce, medical bill, etc.

3.  To get money out and move on to the next better thing.