3 questions. Trulia listings. Finding contractors. 2 parcel

[Juan Alvarez]

Hello,

I’m hoping this year is the year I purchase my first rental property. I am particularly interested in house hacking. I am currently still searching for deals and making out numbers. I haven’t been in actual contact with an agent as I have just been searching through Zillow and trulia. And I was wondering if you guys could answer some questions.

There is a home that I came across on the trulia app that is listed as a 2 parcel. The garage has been turned into a 1bed 1bad while the main home is 3bd 2ba. My question is does a 2 parcel qualify as a multi family home since I am planning on pursuing the house hacking strategy with conventional lending?

How accurate are trulia sell listings. I was told by someone that truly and zillow listing are not accurate and usually more expensive once you contact an agent, any confirmation to that?

Final question. How do most people hire or find reliable contractors? I live in the Dallas Fort Worth area and I am apart of a real estate page on Fb and I see nothing but complaints from property owners about the contractors they hire. Complaints from un finished work, stealing money, showing late to the job, etc. most are from ppl that post their work on FB marketplace. Thats really is one of my concerns, which is buying a property and hiring a contractor to finish some work only for him to leave me with a larger bill or run away with the cash.

Thank you so much for your help!

[Chace Fraser]

Hi @Juan Alvarez and congrats and taking action! 

1) A "2 parcel" property is not one that has 2 "units", it has two separate tax lots that are being sold as one. However, the property you're talking about sounds like the garage was turned into an ADU thus making it a 2 unit of sorts. Depending on whether it was done legally with permits depends on whether or not a lender could count the income from it towards your income (to help you qualify).

2) Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, and many of the other listings sites are pretty accurate. This is because they scrape data off the MLS listing for their listing on their sites.

And using these types of services does not make it more expensive for a buyer to work with an agent. Typically, you as the buyer won't have to pay your agent anything; the commissions for the agents are usually taken from the SELLERS proceeds. 

3) In my experience, the best place to find good contractors is by referral. Start here on BP and by going to local REI meetups and networking with people. Also, YouTube is great if you're looking to do some of the simple things yourself.

Happy investing!