House hacking a duplex in Tacoma, WA

[Blair Nye]

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Tacoma.

Purchase price: $325,000

My first buy and hold rental / house hack. My wife and I bought this duplex with plans to move in to one unit while renting out the other. We'll be doing some repairs and adding value while living there, then we'll move out and turn it into a cash flowing rental after a year or two.

I bought it with a VA loan and $0.00 out of pocket.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Wanting to save money on housing expenses and gain experience in buy and hold real esstate investing.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

A local agent named Aaron Nelson helped me to find and negotiate the deal.

How did you finance this deal?

VA loan. I paid nothIng out of pocket.

How did you add value to the deal?

I'll be making some repairs and upgrades while living in the top unit.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Aaron Nelson of White Coat Realty was a major help in securing this deal.
Nick Wilson of Team Wilson Home Loans was the broker I worked through. He found me a better loan option than I was able to find on my own.

[Brian Hughes]

Congratulations!

Please consider joining rhawa.org (rental housing association of washington) or another landlord industry association.   These associations are incredibly valuable for education, advice, access to legal forms,  screening services, networking,  etc.

If there is not already a tenant in place, be sure you understand how to properly and legally screen.   In tacoma you don't have nearly as much ..stuff.. to deal with as in Seattle,  but there are still pitfalls.   

If there is a tenant in place,  then first thing (after introductions) is to review the rental agreement and make sure everything is on the up and up.  If it was written on the back of a napkin or the rental agreement came from a cracker jack box,  time to update it.  As long as its month to month,  MOST terms can be changed with 30 days notice.   I had this situation with my 4-plex purchase,   I worked with each tenant to update them to current RHA forms at the time;  they were apprehensive at first but I made it clear they were still MtM,  I was not re-screening anybody, etc,  and gave a clear schedule for when rent increases would occur.