All Forum Posts by: Tim Buckingham

I reach out to my bank for some additional information and one thing I did not consider was the down payment amount of 20% since its a second home I'm looking to use as investment (rental or fix and flip). For some reason I was thinking it would be around 10% plus closing costs but this is normally for second homes used as a vacation property.

@Mary K., a majority of the properties I'm looking at our foreclosures/bank owned. I should also note that I don't believe I have enough equity in my primary home (built two years ago) for HELOC line of credit.

@Mary K., thanks for the suggestion. I have also received a few private messages so I'll be reaching out to them for some initial discussions.

Trying to weight a conventional loan agains having to register a LLC for a hard money loan.

I have been looking at some properties in the Harford County area of Maryland (grew up there and I know the area) and I'm looking to get a conventional home loan (second home loan) and I'm wondering what are some local banks members of this forum have used.

Currently I have a home loan from NASA Federal Credit union for my house located in Anne Arundel county and so far no issues from them but I'd like to keep my options open.

 When I went through the process they took my payment over the phone and then I was assigned someone from their team within a day or two. Have you tried calling their 800 # (looks like you'll need to wait until the weekday)? Not sure how you paid but nothing wrong with telling F&G that if they don't correct the initial payment issue that you'll need to dispute the charges.

@Jonathan Moody 

Good information but I'd like to add some additional points (note that your mileage will vary due to numerous variables). 

For those looking to use the Plastiq + Credit Lines for a down payment/closing costs you need to consider the following:

• Most banks will normally require seasoning of funds so if you use Plastiq to perform a wire transfer to your bank account (or that of the Title company) it may throw up red flags. In my case my bank asked for a few monthly checking account statements so they could see my spending habits
• The gift of giving- A few months back a co-worker was looking to purchase a home (not for investor purposes) and they received a "down payment as a gift" from a family member. The donor would just need to write a letter informing the bank that the "gift" does not have to be paid back. Now, I have not tried this but in practice I see no reason why I could not use a service (Plastiq, Venmo?) to pay my sister who would then gift me the down payment via check or wire transfer. It would just cost you the extra service fee + wire transfer fee. I should note that this may be considered manufactured spending

Any opportunities for for short term rentals (monthly, AirBnB, etc) or how able a special like the first two months at a reduced rate and no deposits.

I'm looking at a beach vacation condo for my family but for it to make sense money wise I'd need to also rent it out a majority of the year.

You mentioned you're renting on AirBnB so is this you first rental? Did you have to set your price lower than other short term rentals in the area?

No telling how this will play out in the end but I think this is a good example of investors performing some due diligence when it comes to handing over their hard earned money to someone who will "do all the work for you" (even if its someone from TV).

Put in some hard work and get more hands on and if possible work wit someone in your local area. I'm not going write a check to someone across the country without some guarantees or without the ability to meet face to face with them.