My First Rent By The Room House Hack

[Derick DeCesare]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Denver.

Purchase price: $460,000
Cash invested: $22,000

This is my first rent by the room house hack. It is a 5 bedroom 3 bath. Down payment + closing costs were 27k. I put 13k worth of renovations into it for a total of 40k out of my pocket. I am living in the master bedroom and renting out the other 4 rooms. Rent from those rooms are covering all my expenses on the house plus it is cashflow positive about $300 a month. If you include money that I am saving by not paying rent (was previously paying $1500 a month) it is about an 80% cash on cash return for one year.

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

Craig Curelope and the podcast he did on bigger pockets.

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

Craig Curelope was my agent. Set me up with some search parameters on the mls.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan 5% down.

How did you add value to the deal?

Painting bedrooms, repairing french door, adding new ac and furnace.

What was the outcome?

Positive cashflow of $300 a month plus I am living for free.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I underestimated how long all of the small repairs would take and how much time and capital I would need to invest into them. I had initially planned to put around 5k worth of repairs but it ended up being 13k.

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

Craig Curelope - real estate agent
Michael Stone - lender (megastar)