House Hacking Advice

[Connor Lewis]

Hello BP community!

For those of you that have house hacked before, what advice would you give to someone that's about to start doing so? My wife and I will be purchasing our first property this year, which will be a house hack, so we're searching for advice. Thanks!

[Marcus Auerbach]

Congrats on the plan, complete no brainer. The worst house hack in town still beats a single family home by a long shot. We do a lot of house hacks with clients in Milwaukee and I don't know the Lexington housing stock, so not sure if what I can tell you translates well.

- Make sure you buy in a quality area; you can leverage your low downpayment to stretch much more than you could with an investment property. Long term it will perform much better

- Buy a large building! The biggest mistake I made when I bought my first duplex (as an investment back in 2008) was that I did not understand the importance of square footage! People always look at the bedroom count, square footage is more important for your long term income

- Buy with a 5% down no PMI loan rather than an FHA. Most FHA offers I see on my listings are higher thna conventional offers, buyers try to overcome the FHA stigma with a higher offer price

- If you can remodel before you rent; you will attract much nicer tenants. Do as much as you can, at the very least clean the heck out of the place and paint it. New flooring is great. Best would be a new kitchen and bathroom. The ROI will be slow, but better tenants and long term it pays off!

Get the book on hosue hacking, I believe it's here on the BP book store. You can also find some info on YouTube - look up: house hacking Milwaukee.