House hacking tips/beginner advice

[Matt Sora]

When should I start looking for a multifamily unit for when I move in about a year or more and have to rehab it as well. I am from Ohio looking to relocate to Florida and buy my first home/house hack and want to get the most out of it as I can and also do it the right way!

[Dan Maciejewski]

If you're purchasing in a year, you should start seriously looking after you have your funds in line -- POF and pre-approval if financing. I don't see the market shifting much in the next year. Small multifamily is moving very fast right now.

In the last 5 months:

Hillsborough Average days on market: 40
Hillsborough Median days on market: 13 (that means half of all sales were less than 13 days on market

In the last 3 months:

Pinellas Average days on market: 31
Pinellas Median days on market: 9 (half of all sales went under contract in less than 9 days)

If you're like me (and many people on this forum) you'll be looking all the time to: track cap rates overall and in certain areas, price movement, rent movement, etc. . . By the time you are ready to purchase, you'll have a much better plan, and idea of a great buy when you see it, and an idea of what the ARV will look like.

My advice is to run numbers on everything all the time!  Look all the time.  Estimate rents all the time.  Especially if you're out of area -- you need to learn rents and neighborhoods.  The more you research, the more likely you are to know an area when it comes up in 6 months.  You may say, "I know that area has very low rents," or, "I know that area can accommodate rents in a rehabbed place double what they are now!"