All Forum Posts by: Stephon Mosby Williams

Ok thanks for the information. I thought that since the property is mines and I’m doing the work myself, I wouldn’t need a permit.

I’m in Philadelphia, PA and was wondering if I needed a permit for a washing machine/dryer hookup in one of my apartments? Drain line, gas line & electric.

Thanks Alex and I appreciate the advice!

Ok so let me get straight to it lol I brought my 1st triplex 6/18 at 26. I got it as a house hack so I live in one unit and rent the other two units which eliminates the mortgage coming out of my pocket and I have a little more than $300 after the mortgage to save for any expenses or whatever. I've been lucky some may say since I brought my triplex with good tenants who've been there for years before I even thought of buying the property so they were able to tell me about all the minor issues with the house and they've been good behaving, consistently on-time, full-rent paying tenants since I've owned the house. Hopefully that goes on forever. Fingers crossed. But I've been trying to buy another triplex ever since with little luck. I've been utilizing mostly the MLS and I had three deals fall through. Two because of a slow communicating agent and my most recent one because of the corona virus causing my lender to change the reserve requirement from 3 months to 18 months which forced me to walk away from the house. I luckily will have my earnest money deposit returned because of everything going on. I'm just feeling stuck now and don't know what to do next if that makes sense. I just need help with my next step or two?? Thanks in advance anyone.

@Margaret Refile thanks and much success to you as well. Hopefully we can touch base more since we’re in the same city trying to accomplish similar goals. The more heads the better I think it goes lol

@Margaret Refile I’m in the process now of working with a lender. I used a conventional loan for my first triplex and I want to use fha this time around to utilize the smaller down payment. I think I may even hold it for two years Nd flip to avoid taxes. I’m not sure yet of my exit strategy. I want to let the potential property guide my decision.

@Mary Mitchell when I say buying equity I mean the bigger the down payment is the more equity you will have in an investment. That’s paying for equity. And I wouldn’t finance a property under terms that my rents won’t cover. So if my tenants aren’t at least fully paying whatever monthly obligation I have to whatever lender I use it ain’t worth it to me. My strategy is to pay the down payment and only maintenance afterwards out of pocket. Everything else is on the tenant. Excluding vacancies of course. Nd I mostly pursue turnkey so there’s most likely tenants in place already.

@Guifre Mora I greatly appreciate the help. My question is do any of those lenders offer loans with a 15% down payment or lower? I’m willing to buy owner occupied as well if it’ll help get me a smaller down payment. I’m honestly seeking the smallest down payment so I can keep as much of my hard cash as possible. One thing I try to do is to pay the least amount possible upfront and to let my tenants pay the balance. I don’t want to buy equity, my goal is to force equity if that makes sense.

@Jordan Reynolds well Philadelphia is pretty good. There’s a lot more competition here now than there ever was. You have to work hard toward looking for a property if you want even an ok property but opportunities are around. Triplex prices vary depending on the location of course and Philadelphia is one of those block by block cities. I would say triplexes range from 100k to over a million and 300k would typically be the sweet spot where you would get a pretty decent triplex that you May even feel comfortable living in while renting the other units. Anything over that would be high b-class or a-class triplexes in great neighborhoods or college areas.

@Jordan Reynolds thanks and I live in Philadelphia, PA so that’s where I’m looking to keep buying at least for now anyways. I bought my first triplex last year with a conventional 25% down loan. That isn’t the most ideal or cheapest way to do it but with it being my first purchase and dealing with a motivated seller I had to move fast with what I had. I also didn’t meet the “2 year work history” requirement so the lender I was using said I didn’t qualify for smaller down payment products. I luckily found my property through my agent surprisingly. My agent worked for a real estate brokerage that also did property management. One of their property owners who’s properties they managed wanted to unload two of his properties and one fell right in my lap like that. My agent didn’t even mention that the seller was selling another property until months later. I could have possibly got both but I’m happy I at least got one.