All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Thompson

LMAO @nick britton.  Please don't think outside your herd, the government and millions of other sheep are counting on you......

Realtor.com, then check that against Zillow which usually has more info.

I understand the mindset of "telling yourself your going to work till 65" if you match your companies 401k, however am I wrong in thinking that even if you cash it out early and pay the 10% penalty and taxes, even not taking compound interest into consideration you are still well ahead? Half of the money was "free" to begin with and even at the highest tax bracket WITH the 10% penalty you will still get more than 50% back.  Add that to compound interest not only on your money, but the "free" money that was in the account for the time you were with the company and it seems like a no brainer...  

Is my thinking off on this?

@Anthony Dooley

@jesse t.  

forgot to tag you in the previous post

@David Krulac 

- since your semi local

Yes, I always keep a minimum of $10,000 cash liquid as "just in case" money, so I would have enough for the down payment on a MFR. My credit score is around 700. The reason I asked about the DTI on a MFR is that I have some old collections that don't fall off until next year that will count against my DTI and I would like to scale my rentals as quickly as possible (without over leveraging) once I start....

2 different opinions so far, anyone else? What percentages would you use for maint/vac/pm to figure out cash flow? I wasn't sure since its a condo and everything outside of the 4 walls themselves is taken care of in the HOA.

Looking for help analyzing my current primary residence to decide whether I should rent it out as my first long term rental or sell it. Although i'm completely dreading it, it looks like my best move to get started in REI is house hacking. Here are the numbers, let me know what you would do....

Condo - 3/2.5, 1950 sqft, good neighborhood, best school in the county etc....

HOA fees: $145 a month... covers trash, snow, lawn, insurance and all exterior maintenance.

Sewer-$30

PITI-$700

value- $122,500

balance-$101,000

Rent value-$1,250

The only money I have had to put into the place in 8 years is $700 for a hot water heater.

I'm just not sure if the cashflow would be worth having to deal with the HOA even though I like the idea of not having to worry about ext maint. snow, lawn etc.... With agent commission I would only be looking to get 12-15,000 out of the sale and I would be looking at a tri or fourplex FHA to replace it, spending the least possible amount of time in that (1 year) and then moving on from there. I was thinking about either a triplex or 4 plex as from what I understand as long as the other units rents cover PITI of the entire building then 75% can be used towards DTI ratio.

I'm sure I forgot some important info here, but what would you do in my situation?

Ok, I don't want to give up that easy so i'm trying to think of other options... It shows as charged off 4 years ago on my credit report. What if I "house hack" instead and purchase a 4 unit worth more than my current home and live in one, would that solve my problem? I'm under the impression if I do this that as long as the rent of the other 3 units covers the mortgage FHA will allow you to use 75% of the rent towards DTI?

no one?

I have been researching bigger pockets for awhile now and would like to take "advantage" of a bad situation in order to set myself up for a better chance of future success. 

My wife and I split a few months back, and although we are working on it, in the meantime I do not need the 3/2.5 condo that I have owned since 2006 just for myself.  My idea is to find a smaller home for myself and rent this one out as it should be good for about $225 in net positive cash flow.  I bought this condo for $140,000, owe 101,000, value 122,500, conventional loan. 

I found a foreclosure (also a condo) 2/1.5 nearby that just dropped 20,000 to $55,000 (ARV $90,000) My plan was to contact a local investor who is also a real estate agent that was referred to me by a local wholesaler and have him look at the property with me and use his knowledge to decide If its a good deal or not and then of course be my buyers agent for the purchase. I don't want to waste anyone's time, so I contacted my uncle, who is a mortgage broker to see if he see's any issues getting this done, but he doesn't think he can do it.

Back in 2009 I ran into some money issues and the end result was a loan modification on my 1st mortgage, a charge off of my second and 3 collections ($15,000). In 2013 as part of that national debt settlement lawsuit with the government wells fargo "forgave" that second mortgage so nothing is owed on it. My credit score is about 700 now with no lates on anything since 2009, but he is saying that because I would be buying a home in the same area for less than the one I already own I would not be able to purchase it FHA and because Freddie/Fannie view the second mortgage charge off the same as a short sale I wouldn't be able to go that route either.....

Sorry for the long post, but I know without the back story it would make it hard to give me an accurate answer.  Does anyone have any ideas for this situation?

Thank you in advance.