Newbie looking for advice on a House Hack!

[Griffin Ahrendt]

I am currently a 21 year old college student looking to house hack in order to save money on living expenses. I am an absolute newbie on real estate investing, and am currently trying to learn as much as I can. I have gotten pre-approved for an FHA loan up to $220k. Here is the property I am interested in, and have attempted running calculations on:

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/318-E-Plum-St_Mankato_MN_56001_M76689-72127?view=qv

I then used rentometer and Zillow to try and get an estimate of the rent I could receive for the property. Rentometer gave me an estimate of $1,402 and Zillow gave me an estimate of $1,445. I decided to go with Rentometer to have a more conservative calculation. $1,402 divided by the 4 bedrooms gives a rent of 350.5, and I believe I could charge $355.

To attempt to calculate the return on the property. I used the values from the realtor.com website for purchase information and expenses, and the bank of america calculator to estimate closing costs. Since all the expenses on the calculator were listed as annual, I took the monthly values on the realtor website and multiplied them by 12.

I'm very confused on what maintenance costs should be estimated at, as well as what I should put for monthly rent. Would it be $1,420 (355x4) or $1065 (355x3)? I'm not sure if I should include myself or not.

Any advice or corrections I should make? Attached are links for each of the calculations I used:

$1,420:
https://www.calculator.net/rental-property-calculator.html?cprice=149900&cuseloan=yes&cdownpayment=3.75&cinterest=3.841&cloanterm=30&cothercost=6240&cneedrepair=no&crepaircost=10000&cafterrepairvalue=150000&ctax=1164&ctaxincrease=3&cinsurance=1992&cinsuranceincrease=3&choa=0&choaincrease=3&cmaintenance=1000&cmaintenanceincrease=3&cother=200&cotherincrease=3&crent=1420&crentincrease=3&cotherincome=0&cotherincomeincrease=3&cvacancy=10&cmanagement=0&cknowsellprice=no&cappreciation=3&csellprice=200000&cholding=20&csellcost=8&printit=0&ctype=&x=75&y=10

$1,065: 
https://www.calculator.net/rental-property-calculator.html?cprice=149900&cuseloan=yes&cdownpayment=3.75&cinterest=3.841&cloanterm=30&cothercost=6240&cneedrepair=no&crepaircost=10000&cafterrepairvalue=150000&ctax=1164&ctaxincrease=3&cinsurance=1992&cinsuranceincrease=3&choa=0&choaincrease=3&cmaintenance=1000&cmaintenanceincrease=3&cother=200&cotherincrease=3&crent=1065&crentincrease=3&cotherincome=0&cotherincomeincrease=3&cvacancy=10&cmanagement=0&cknowsellprice=no&cappreciation=3&csellprice=200000&cholding=20&csellcost=8&printit=0&ctype=&x=75&y=32

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I just want to learn from my mistakes and gain as much knowledge as I can.

[Brent Buysse]

Hey Griffin 

$350 is about average for mankato make sure the tenants pay all the utilities and you will need to make at least 1% of the cost of the property in rent anything less and your just spinning your wheels!! If your bored driving around I have a duplex for sale 117 S 4th Street if your interested send me a message