Dirty Harry Diary-First Time House Hacker

[Pete Perez]

Hello BP!

I am starting this post and would like to update it periodically. My wife and I purchased our first property back in July of this year. We are calling it Dirty Harry, because its on a street called Harrington and its dirty haha. The property is a duplex in Renton WA and we are house hacking it. Its a duplex from the 1940s and at the time of purchase was being rented for $900 each side. I am sharing a link to provide photos of what it looked like when we bought and would like to share photos of the progression of the property.    

Photos:

Inspection Day Photos

Prior to this we were living in an apartment and were paying $1540 per month + utilities and I got really tired of paying rent lol. This property represents a bike with training wheels in our eyes. Literally every improvement we make will be the first time ever doing it so its an exciting time! We are going to make plenty of mistakes, but thats how we learn and grow. Our goal is to make REI another revenue stream for us (hopefully a very large one) and this is our introduction to doing just that. The plan with this property is to rehab it over the next year and turn it into a cash flow positive asset.

The Numbers (while we live in it):

Purchased Price: $365k w/ 5% down payment on a conventional program

ARV: $440k-$460k

PITI: $2018

Rent: $900 (currently) but will increase to $1200 as of the new year

That offsets our mortgage to a little over $800, which is way better than the rent we were paying previously. 

The Numbers (after both sides are rehabbed and rented out):

Rental income: $1550 each side

Net Operating Income: Rents-PITI = ($3100-$2018) = $1018 (I know this isn't cash flow btw)

Please comment, ask questions, critique my way of viewing the property, etc. I am always happy to talk about this stuff! And The advise of people that have gone before me is priceless to me so thanks in advance!