New Investor (House Hacking)

[John Santiago]

Hello everyone,

I’m a new real estate investor in the Minneapolis-St Paul area looking and excited to dive into the game! The approach I’m deciding to take is to “House Hack” a du-plex or a tri-plex. Any advice for a newbie for when taking this approach? Thanks in advance 

[Jeff Schemmel]

Hey @John Santiago good morning!  I house hack a duplex in Saint Paul and I'm happy to provide my perspective.  Reach out anytime if you have questions about my advice or others you think I could answer for you.

Here are some tips from myself as a house hacker:
1.) Link up with an excellent local lender ASAP.  They will help you know what lending options you have.  Those are the "tools" in your toolbelt, and any local lender who's also an investor is going to be able to guide you on which one is smart for which deal or sequence.
2.) Start practicing your deal analysis.  I prefer to make my own calculator.  The numbers for your deal must be your numbers and you've got to build the muscle memory needed to know a deal when you see one.  You should practice several deal analysis each day and get to the point where you can see a home priced in a certain neighborhood and quickly deduce whether it's worth attention.
3.) Find a realtor partner who is also an investor who can guide you as a first time home buyer and investor.  Hit the streets and make it real by getting into properties and talking about deals.
4.) Go to meetups and meet other investors to hear about different house hacking strategies.  If you can, decide whether you're willing to rent by the room.  if you are, the return is MUCH better than if you're not.  You have to be OK with someone eating your chips and not take it personally ;) 
5.) Read "the house hacking strategy" by Craig Curelop, and "the book on managing rental properties" by Brandon and Heather Turner.  between those two, you'll be more equipped as an owner-occupant of a rental property.