House Hacking Phoenix

[Dominic Greeley]

I own a condo with great ROI potential. I used to house hack but I had my family move in. I am now closing on my 2nd property sometime in May and so I will be going back to house hacking until I gain enough for a 3rd property. I want to know how and what everyone is doing in this realm cause I didn't see this topic in Arizona forums. Here are some questions I have about the topic:

What is everyone using to gain perspective tenants?  

What methods are you using to keep it peaceful without the clash of personality?

Are you using a legal entity for your house hack?

Do you have an accountant to help with expenses and tax side of it?

[Abel Curiel]

Good morning Dominic,

Solid strategy!

I'd list your rental with a Real estate agent to get the most quality potential tenants in to see your rental. By putting your rental on MLS, it will be marketed to brokers who are incentivized to find someone qualified to fill the vacancy.

If you'd like to handle that on your own, you can certainly use Zillow and get plenty of traffic there as well. You may get a few dead leads and unqualified people but how many can depend on a variety of things (location, rent amount, listing description, etc.).

To effectively screen prospective tenants, you can/should ask for W-2 forms, recent pay stubs, employment verification, landlord referral letters, and conduct a background check on them as well. After they see and like the apartment and BEFORE you interview them. 

I'd ask a real estate attorney about whether or not to use an entity. 

You can have an accountant do your bookkeeping. Maybe find a good accountant who works with investors AND can do your personal taxes as well. You can also use apps like quickbooks and taxbot to track your expenses.

Best of luck to you!

Abel