How should I use this money?

okay, short and sweet.

I have 30K, and am in MA. will be moving to FL in jan '07. Figuring i’ll save maybe 8K for the trip down, living while finding a property, and wanting some money to stock the fridge when i get it, how should i spread my cash?

some tidbits:

  1. want a multi unit
  2. will be living in 1 unit, my contractor-ish brother in another (working for his rent)
  3. my fiance will be living in my unit. we both have ficos of over 740.
  4. i’ll be 23 when we do this deal
  5. we plan to live in it for a little over a year, and are more concerned with making money on the backend of hte deal, we’re not into it for cashflows, but we do want to have low/no monthly rent payments.

so, my questions are

  1. should i be looking for HUD 203 loans? fannie mae? i probably need something with no/low money down to keep the money for rehabbing, but i dunno.
  2. what price range should i be looking for?

That’s a pretty big question- you should talk with a quality Realtor and mortgage consultant and they can help guide you as to the price range you should look at. The mortgage person can help advise you as to how much you would qualify for and what monthly payments would look like. Armed with that knowledge, the Realtor can help you make a smart choice on the property that would be sense given what you have posted here.

As far as what kind of financing, it depends on if the rehab will take more than the $22K that will be left over after you moving expenses. Rehab loans are more costly than “regular” mortgages, so I wouldn’t advise it if the $22K will be sufficient to fund the fix-up. Also, with a FNMA rehab loan, a licensed contractor has to do the work and must take the money in draws. I don’t know if the FHA program is the same.

Good Luck!

uhh, surprised they don’t pull advertisements like htat, but i’m all set buddy.

my fico is mid 7’s, but i imagine there’s a catch if you’re talking about giving 100% financing to people with such low scores, and you not posting your angle makes me completely uninterested in anything you have to offer

The only catch is probably the interest rate. People with a 580 score are probably going to end up with a rate like 9-12% depending on the situation.

As for your other questions, it depends on the area you’re moving into and your income. If you were looking in MA, I’d say you’d have to move pretty far from the city in order to find a multi that’s pretty cheap. In the Boston area, they start at about 400k and go up from there. 5% down at those prices is 20k! Don’t know what the situation is like in Florida though. Should be much less.

20K is a little high, but 15K for my down payment+closing costs is more what i’m looking to spend.

i’m figuring on having a little under (if not reaching) 30K by the time i am ready to head to FL. i figure i need to leave 5K for the trip down, and time spent finding the property (motels, food, gas). if i spend 15K on downpayment/closing fees, that leaves me with about 10K, which is, i hope, a solid cusion until i figure what is going on (like whether or not i’ll need a job. if i can get the cash flow from teh 2 paying units (of a 4 unit) to cover the 2 unpaying units’ share, then i’m golden. I’m a few days away from learning how to really play with mortgage calculations, until then i’m just hoping it could be a reality that 2/4 units could cover the operating expenses (mortgage/ins/ etc) (if that is a total pipe dream someone please chime in, it woudl be good to brace myself for the need of working more now haha)

I can honestly say if you are having trouble in figuring out what to do with the money you can always give it to me. i can easily find something to do with it. ;D (kidding)