It’s taken me a few years but I finally understand how to create money from real estate re-financing. It’s another aspect the money-making magic of properly investing your money.
Right off the top, I want to tell you that I have never done this. In other words, my understanding of the process is only theoretical and it is not based on my own experience. I have never bought a property, renovated it, and then re-financed it to extract my investment.
Secondly, I want to be explicitly clear that I am not telling, instructing, advising, recommending, or otherwise encouraging you to do this with your money. It’s just a theory that I have finally understood so I want to share it with the world via this blog.
I’m a fan of the podcast Millionaires Unveiled. In episode 145, the hosts were talking to a guest who had made significant money in real estate. The guest used the same BRRRR method espoused by Brandon Turner at Bigger Pockets. You may also want to check out Graham Stephan on his YouTube channel, where he goes through a detailed example of how to profitably invest in real estate.
A Simple Example…as I understand things!
Purchase Price – $80,000. Renovations – $20,000. Total Investment – $100,000. After Repair Value – $150,000. Re-Finance & Cash Out @ 85% of ARV – $127,500. Free Money to Investor – $27,500.
So let’s un-pack this.
In this example, the investor bought a property for $80,000 in cash, meaning that there was no mortgage debt to the bank. (This example also works if the investor invests a 20% down payment – $16,000 – and gets a mortgage for the remaining $64,000. Either way, she’s still buying an investment property for $80,000.)
Renovations of $20,000 were made to the property. At this point, the investment in the rental property is $100,000 = $80,000 + $20,000.
The money-making magic starts when the investor goes to the bank to get financing on the property. (If the investor had had a mortgage, then she would’ve “re-financed” the property.) In the example above, the bank appraises the property at $150,000, which is $50,000 more than the investor’s total investment. The bank agrees to finance 85% of the ARV, which puts $127,500 back into the investor’s hands. As we all know, $150,000 x 85% is equal to $127,500.
(And if the investor started with a mortgage, she would go to a second bank to re-finance the property. She would then pay off the mortgage of $64,000 at the first bank, and be in the same position as if she had paid the full $80,000 up front. $127,500 – $16,000 – $64,000 – $20,000 = $27,500.)
Since there is now a mortgage on the property, equivalent to $127,500, the investor uses the rent from that property to pay back the mortgage. If everything goes perfectly, the rent will also cover other costs such as insurance, property taxes, and repairs.
In this example, the investor has earned $27,500 in free money through the money-making magic of real estate investing. Remember, she invested $100,000 of her own money ($80,000 + $20,000) and is walking away with $127,500 after financing her property. There are three things to take-away from this example.
- The investor now owns an investment property while also recouping her entire $100,000 investment. In other words, she has none of her own money in the property.
- If everything goes right, someone else is paying the mortgage and costs of this property with a little something leftover for cashflow to the investor.
- Finally, the $27,500 is tax-free money. This is money that was derived from a higher appraised value. She’s removed some of the equity from the property and put it in her own pocket.
If you decide to start real estate investing, get proper accounting and tax advice from professionals you’ve paid to do work on your behalf. Do NOT take accounting and investing advice from blogs on the internet.
Lots of Things Have to Go Right for This to Work
The rewards are bountiful when things go right. In our example, the investor had the money to invest. The appraised value after the renovations was high. The bank was willing to finance 85% of the property value. There was a pool of available renters who could afford to pay a rental amount that covered the mortgage payment and associated costs of the investment property. The market rental price was high enough to cover the mortgage payment and the aforementioned associated costs.
Let’s say the bank had only wanted to finance 65% of the ARV. Our investor would have only been able to pull out $95,700 (= $150,000 x 65%). She would not have pulled out her entire $100,000 and the increase-in-equity-through-the-power-of-smart-renovations amount of $27,500.
Or let’s say that the real estate market had dropped between the date of the purchase and the date of the new appraisal. The bank tells our investor that the appraised value had come back at only $115,000, instead of $150,000. Even at the 85% ARV financing, the bank would only give the investor $97,750 (= $115,000 x 85%) to put towards the purchase of her next investment.
Another area where the plan could’ve gone haywire is the renovation costs. If our investor had budgeted $20,000 for renovations but wound up paying $50,000 for renovations, then her investment amount in the property would be $130,000 (= $80,000 + $50,000) instead of only $100,000. If the re-appraised value remained $150,000 and she could finance the property at 85%, she still would not be extracting her full investment of $130,000 because the bank would only be giving her $127,500.
Finally, there’s always the possibility that the renter stops paying the rent and the investor is forced to pay for the property. Every dollar out of the investor’s pocket is a decrease in the return from the investment property. The money-making magic has suddenly been turned into a money-sucking curse.
Research, research, research!
Like I said at the beginning, I finally understand the theory behind the money-making magic of real estate. It’s taken me years and many, many, many hours of listening to various podcasts & YouTube videos, but I finally get it. Now that I do understand it, I personally think it’s disingenuous to use click-bait language like “buying real estate with none of your own money.”
Obviously, at some point, you will need money to invest in real estate. It’s more accurate to say that there isn’t always a need for your own money to stay locked inside your investment properties… Okay, I get it – my language isn’t nearly as catchy and it would never qualify as click-bait.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that I generally know what the pundits mean when they use the click-bait language. I’m not a real estate investment expert. I haven’t put this theory into practice, and I’m not certain that I ever will. What I am certain of is that I finally understand – in a very rudimentary way – how a person can own real estate without keeping their money in an investment property. If the stars are aligned just right and nothing goes awry, real estate investors have the ability to own real estate without their money remaining in their investment properties.
It’s certainly not risk-free, but it does sound like it could work if everything goes right. If it’s something that you’re interested in, then I suggest that you start learning as much as you can before you start investing.
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Weekly Tip: Pay off your mortgage before you retire. It’s not good to go into retirement with debt. You will more than likely be living on a fixed income. Do what you can to ensure that creditors aren’t take a bite out of your fixed income every month. You won’t regret the fact that you’re mortgage-free when you’re retired.
