First Property-House Hack-Exit Strategy

[Mickey Lawrence]

Hi I’m Mickey. I’m in sales by day and am ready to make the house hack plunge. Im looking for my first home, which will be a house hack. A Duplex up to four plex in the Houston, TX market with a price range of 245000 or less and I would like for it to be move in ready. What should I consider for an exit strategy and what should I be looking at number wise when selecting a property. I haven’t used the calculators on BP yet. Any advice and encouragement will be great.  I started lender shopping today.  If you are in the houston market and are familiar with what I should be looking for, I’d gladly appreciate advice. Thanks for any support in this. 

[John Warren]

@Mickey Lawrence house hacking is all about compromise. You have to mix your personal residence with your investment property, so you will have to decide if you are going more towards cash flow/area you are ok with living in versus reduced cost of living/better area. I do a lot of business here in Chicago with investors who house hack, and that is always the struggle. In addition, if you want to see higher returns you typically have to buy a property where there is a bit of deferred maintenance. I often times counsel my clients to find the proverbial "little old lady" house where you can paint walls, refinish floors and bump rents a few hundred dollars! This is where the real wealth is made in the house hacking space in my opinion.