All Forum Posts by: Susanna Perenboom

Just starting out with investing and looking for some advice from those more experienced.

In December 2017 I did a house hack with a duplex, got fantastic tenants to live in the other half and my fiancé and I lived in our half for the last 1.5 years. Last month I got a HELOC for $55k for the equity we've built. We're now putting the half we live in up for rent and will be moving into a friend's ADU which will save us about $600/month in ‘rent' and utilities. The duplex will be just about breaking even financially when we account for saving for repairs and vacancies.

What should our next move be? I'm a veterinarian and qualify for a few ‘doctors loans' which have 0% down, no PMI, but variable interest rates. We would have to move into any house we buy if we use this loan. Or we could put the $55k in HELOC money as a 20% down payment on a small SFH and we wouldn't have to move into it. My fiancé is a real estate agent.

Our goal is to add 2-3 more rental units to our portfolio before buying our dream home in the next 2 years.

Thanks for any advice, this community is amazing!

@Mathew Wray would be a good idea except the second FHA purchase would need to be 100 miles away so we can't do that unfortunately

@Scott Radetich thank you!! Will look into this 👍🏻

@Kip Thompson thanks!

I am paying over double (almost triple) the minimum payments right now so this could be a good approach.

Need advice please!

I'm a little stuck in my investing and need some thoughts from those more experienced. I am a veterinarian and did a ‘house hack' last year with a single family home that has an attached ADU (the home and ADU are both 950 sqft so this set up is similar to a duplex). I got fantastic tenants for the ADU and I still currently live in the main home portion with my fiancée who is a real estate agent.

Right now I am hoping to expand my portfolio but am having trouble finding the right strategy/loan. I thought I qualified for the doctors through Keybank which would have allowed me a 0% down payment and no mortgage insurance, but they recently told me I need to be a vet specialist which I am not. Sad. I already used an FHA to purchase the home I'm in or I'd use that loan. I don't qualify for homeready. A conventional loan could only get me a SFR for 5% down and with mortgage insurance (I'd have to move into this new property which is fine) but the mortgage insurance and high home prices here in Portland, OR make this not a very profitable move. My fiancée could qualify for an FHA but probably for not enough to get us into a duplex/triplex. Saving for 20% down is unrealistic as I have six figure student loans at 6.8% interest that we're trying to pay off like crazy.

Any ideas for me to expand my portfolio?

Thanks guys!

Just closed on my first house hack about two weeks ago! Renovated the unit I’ll be advertising while I slowly put together my own living space. Advertisement has been up over a week, two great potential tenants came by for showings but weren’t even interested enough to fill out an application (I did lower the price after 7 days to match fair market value). Third showing is two newlyweds, husband admits he has a felony on his record (attempted assault with a BB gun four years ago), wife has a newborn, section 8 funded, no jobs, currently homeless. Section 8 would pay a full 6 months of rent and the deposit. Someone tell me not to get discouraged and take these less than ideal tenants.... first mortgage payment looms