All Forum Posts by: Wade McMaster

Equity gains are going to be more of a guess than other things. You can get a pretty precise estimate of rents, and know exactly what your mortgage payment will be. Taxes will be fairly precisely estimated. But equity gains will be just a guess, because they depend largely on appreciation. Long-term, the national average real estate appreciation will probably be about 3% per year (2.5% inflation + 0.5% inflation-adjusted gains), but they can vary widely from place to place, and the place you expect to see gains might have losses, and vice versa. I have a theory that the Washington, D.C. metro area (where I live) will have above 3% gains on average throughout my life, but I could be wrong. Cash flow protects you against losses in equity, and let you speculate on a place having above-expected appreciation.

Tl;dr- It's probably a good idea to distinguish between expected cash flow and price appreciation hopes.

I have recently become a licensed real estate salesperson for the state of Virginia (yay!). I'm mainly in Fairfax County and Loudoun County and I've joined a great team at Coldwell Banker that have lots of experience. I also have a little experience as an investor/landlord. Let me know if I can help you find your next investment or home.

@Nicholas Covington I appreciate your time. As for the FHA, we bought that house for a primary, as required, but then moved out, (which, I double- and triple-checked, is legal). We're renting right now, so if we buy a new house to live in, that will be exactly one primary residence for us.

@Nicholas Covington I guess I'm not a normal person, but if I have a performing asset on one hand and on the other a primary residence that's bigger than I need, in a posh neighborhood, that costs more than I can afford, I'm going to keep the asset and move. But I see your point. Statistics show I'm the weirdo.

While I've got the attention of a professional lender: can I get a USDA 0% down mortgage while I've still got an FHA mortgage?

I've been looking into refinancing a house that we bought with an FHA as our primary residence and are now using as an investment property. It's now below 75% LTV, but every lender wants to charge us a higher APR because it's an investment property. Is this one of those things where we can shop around and find a lender that is friendlier to investors (or build a relationship with lender for better terms), or is the APR on an investment property refi going to be the same regardless of the specific lender?

@Taylor L. Richmond is pretty far from Reston, and I caught a stomach bug last night (and didn't go meet the owners). Could I attend via webchat?

@Account Closed

Way, way, way, way, waaaayyyy out of my depth. Better?

Ok, more on the financing point: I've heard and read that if you find (or make) a good enough deal, financing will be available for it. Also, what do you think of the idea of a master lease for such a project?

Ok, so I'm way out of my depth, but I'm going tomorrow to try to introduce myself to the owners of the large apartment complex where I live. (You may have seen the discussion I started when I was trying to look up who the owner was and how to contact them.) I've estimated the property has over 200 units, I haven't had time to hand-count them yet, don't know if I can look it up easily. 

Anyway, I'm not sure what I want to say to the owner. I'm the kind of guy who likes to play things close to the vest, and I think I'll keep it to myself for now that I want to sign a win-win master lease with them and replace their management company - maybe not mention that I'm a resident at a property they own - maybe just introduce myself and see if they have time to answer some questions from an aspiring real estate investor. Does anybody have any experience with a situation at all like this? Any wisdom from experience you folks can share?

Here's what the current management are doing wrong, via Seth Godin's blog. Zero empathy for the tenants.

@Account Closed

Thanks, everybody! I found what promises to be the company's physical address through elaborate search terms. Heretofore, in the Tax Assessor's website, etc., I found the contact info only for the offending management company against whom I intend to compete as a superior alternative. 

This has been fun so far, and I'll keep everybody apprised to my progress. 

Any thoughts on my plan for signing a Master Lease and flipping it to a more experienced investor/company? Should I just solicit investors and start implementing the improvements and hold onto the Master Lease even though I have a full-time job and little to no experience with commercial multifamily real estate, let alone 200+ unit complexes? Should I start a new thread with this second line of questions?