All Forum Posts by: Trevor Carlson

My wife and i are going to refinance our primary residence to take advantage of a lower interest rate. We are also going to be buying our first rental property in Columbus, OH in the next few months. We plan on building a portfolio of small multi-family properties over the next five years. I know that financing is easier to get for the first few properties, and I know that by having properties in each of our names we can extend the amount of properties we own collectively at better financing terms.

Is there any disadvantage to having our primary residence refinanced in only my wife's name?

Are there any considerations I am missing?

Other possibly useful information: My wife's W2 income will qualify no problem. I am self employed. We file our taxes jointly.

 Ha Ha! Like Michael Scott in The Office!

 I just recently decided on Columbus after considering a number of different areas, so I haven't narrowed things down yet. My goal is a single family or small multi-family cash-flowing rental in an area with good schools. My sister, who lives in Columbus, has given me a list of neighborhoods to check out. My goal is to have purchased the property by the time my wife and I visit her in 2021. 

Do you have any areas you would suggest?

Congratulations @Benson Gee! It's nice to hear your success story. I am looking at buying in the Columbus area too, so your info is very helpful to me. I'm really looking forward to hearing your update in 6 months.

I was running some numbers in the Rental Property calculator and I came across an error. In an attempt to make a deal for myself I was considering a seller finance option where the seller got his asking price but at 0% interest. When I entered this in the calculator it would not calculate the monthly mortgage payment, and it gave a total expenses number of $0. This was despite calculating my other expenses correctly (vacancy, repairs, cap ex, etc.) I did find a workaround by entering a 0.0001% interest rate which gave a very close approximation of what the numbers should have been.

Hopefully this post will be seen by someone who can fix the calculator and can help others be aware not to use 0.0% interest in the meantime.

@Zane Biggs I don't know your market but I know in my market I wouldn't expect to be able to break even, even with a four plex. What I think you should consider is how much of a discount you would be getting (‘expected rent plus negative cash flow) and cash on cash ROI calculated on the value if you paid rent for your unit. Remember the stock market gets about 7%, so a good deal should get you more than this.

And also look at lots of deals. Eventually you will find something that makes sense. Good luck 😀

I would run the analysis as $0 for the unit you are in. When analyzing the deal it may give something like -$400 cash flow. This would mean that the tenants would pay all but $400 of your rent. If it came out as $0 cash flow then they would be paying all of your rent. 

I would then run it again as if you rented the property at the going rate. This would give you an idea of how much the unit would cash flow for once you moved into another place and kept it as a rental. This would also give you an estimate of what your cash on cash ROI is.

Hi Damien,

I am a BP newbie too. I have been listening to the podcasts for the last five months incessantly. I bought a pro membership a couple of weeks ago and have been analyzing deals everyday since. Before the membership I was using a spreadsheet to analyze deals for potential rentals. I am good with numbers and this system worked fine. However, I think there is HUGE value in the pro membership for the following reasons:

* The calculator's presentation, as you know, is phenomenal. The professional look of the PDF is far better than my simple spreadsheet. I do think this will be helpful when talking to lenders and potential partners.

* The BRRRR calculator is great for more complex calculations that could easily yield errors when trying to figure it out on a spreadsheet. I wouldn't suggest using a spreadsheet for these calculations unless you are supremely confident in the process.

* The BP site has other great resources and perks besides the calculators. And you can get a discount if you sign up for a free webinar.

* For me, paying for a year's subscription reinforced my commitment to buy my first rental property this year. It removed any lingering psychological barrier. I have no excuse now. I am going to do the work necessary to find my first deal.

I hope this helps. Good luck in your journey.