Friday, August 23, 2013

Real Estate Update - 3rd property or eliminate PMI?

In my last update I mentioned getting an additional $100/mo for a total of $1000/mo rent on this condo unit. The unit is above the break-even point with payments of principal higher than the negative cash flow but the negative cash flow still bothers me.

I had been tossing around the idea of a third property.  However, I realized that I can now pay off PMI from the FHA loan on my condo unit.

According to FHA, you have to have 78% LTV in order to get rid of PMI.  You also have to have 60 months worth of payments.  Even if you had 78% LTV then you would still have to wait.  Also the value only goes off of the original appraised amount.  So even if your property has increased in value then you still have to use the original valuation for the 78% LTV purposes.

The condo had an original appraisal of $119,500.  So 78% of this amount is $93,210.  About a month ago I decided to start paying down this debt.  The loan balance at that time was $106,074.09, so I needed to pay down an additional $12,864.09 to eliminate the PMI which is currently $49.56.  This is a ROI of 4.6%. This isn't too bad and since I still have negative cash flow I decided I would pay this loan down immediately. Not to mention, that after paying this loan balance down, I will have more of the monthly payments going towards principal.

So I am on track to have this balance paid down sometime in September.  After PMI is eliminated, I will again start looking at an additional property or possibly paying off this entire loan since it's the highest interest rate of any I have at 5%.  I've also go another investment idea that I will be posting very soon.

4 comments:

  1. AAI, thanks for stopping by on my blog and commenting. I can see your reasons for paying down your loan and I was thinking about PMI as well as one of the reasons you would want to pay extra cash, but as soon as you get rid of the PMI I don't see many reasons to pay extra on a 3 - 4% loan. Good luck

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    1. Hi Martin,

      PMI can be tricky and it's different for an FHA loan as opposed to a convential. In my case, I decided it was worthwhile to get rid of it.

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. AAI private mortgage insurance is something I have always dreaded, even though I only have one mortgage with PMI. Im sitting at 82% and projecting to be at 78% in 7 months. I look forward to your next investment idea.

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    1. Hi IE,

      I agree, there is no benefit to me in having PMI. It sounds like you are really close to eliminating PMI yourself then. Nice job! I also just posted my next idea, a solar system for my house.

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