House Hacking Next Steps

[Pablo Cuevas]

Good Morning BP,

So a few month ago I had posted about how I wanted to house hack and needed some input on whether my goal and timeline were realistic. Now, a few months down, I have spoken to a few lenders, and it seems like the dream is more and more likely by the month. My problem before was knowing whether I would be able to afford and get a house within in a year. Now I need to know more about the market, how to crunch the numbers and find a good property.

To give a little backstory, I want to buy a 200k house, and rent it out to my current roommates (there's two of them). We are good friends and I am not necessarily looking to profit off them, more so just live cheaper than we are living now in apartments, and in a house together. When they graduate from college and go back to their hometowns is when I actually want to begin cash flowing. This is all just an idea as of now though. I have thought about charging them more than I would be paying monthly, and they said they would be fine with that. I am just not sure how much to charge them exactly. 

Anyways, how do I know whether property A of 200k will be better than property B of 200k. What numbers or factors do I look for to say, "this property is gonna be really good, go up in value, cashflow nicely when my roommates move out in 2 years." I live in San Antonio, TX, and the area I am looking to get the house in is an area with a lot of things to do around it, and next to two large educational institutions and a few big San Antonio attractions. I have been using Zillow and its monthly cost calculator to see what the monthly expenses would be for every house. The costs usually come out to $1400-$1800/month. From those numbers, 3 of us and my girlfriend will be living in the house, so say 1800/4 + utilities estimate, we would come out to around 500/month each if we split the costs evenly. After they move out in two years, if all goes well, I hope to buy a second property and turn this house into a rental.  

In all, what exactly should I look at when I am searching for a house? What should I look for in my market? And how do I go about charging my roommates a reasonable price, while also thinking about rental income after they move out? 

I feel like I am all over the place, sorry, it is my first house and I just want to have a great start to my real estate investing. Thank you all for your advice and I look forward to speaking with y'all.