Experienced House Hackers in North Jersey

[Ravi Patel]

Hi,

I am a new real estate investor looking to purchase my first deal which will be a house hack. I have been spending some lately educating myself. I currently am not a homeowner and living rent-free. I am looking for a property within Southern Bergen County (Garfield, Lyndhurst, North Arlington, East Rutherford, etc...

My strategy is to "house hack" a cash flowing, owner-occupied 3-4 unit multi-family home, that also needs some updating but not significant rehab, using a 10% conventional down loan. (conventional seems to outweigh FHA). I am going to seriously start looking for an investment in summer since hopefully more homes will be on the market.

My budget is 400k-600k.~50k down, another ~30k for renovations.

 If you have experience purchasing a deal like this yourself in the last few years, I would love to connect and learn about your experience (dm appreciated). What do you exactly use to calculate your numbers? What Pro Forma sheet do you use? Did you cash-out refinance after rebab? Did you move out after 1 year?