Newbie First House Hack!

[Essien Benjamin]

Hey BP Community!

So I'm proud to say that I have purchased my first property! It's a 3 bed, 2 bath condo in Everett, WA. I plan on living in one bedroom and renting out the other two rooms. I'm super excited to start my real estate journey. But even after listening to all the podcasts and reading all the books, I'm realizing that there are still a lot of little details that I don't know. For instance, I'm planning on splitting utilities (gas, electricity, and internet) with my tenants, how should I have them pay this to me? Also, any online software that anybody would suggest for rent payments? I am thinking about using cozy.co. 

Any advice on this or advice on anything that you think would be helpful would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[Ana Coello]

@Essien Benjamin way to go! We just bought a house and are renovating it to house hack it. We bought the Brandon Turner book on managing rental properties and found it so helpful! We’ve also gone to two local REAs and they are such great resources! Going consistently is key as some days you may find more info more applicable to you than others. 

For rent we are thinking venmo, cashapp, bank (since it’s a house hack and the rent isn’t that much). For background and credit check I’m still between cozy and rentprep. 

Hope everything goes great and I’m happy to share any tiny bit of info you’d need. I’m just 2 steps ahead in this journey but I’ve studied the life out of it. 

Warm wishes,

Ana