The Lucky House Hack

[Daniel Phai]

Investment Info:

Other other investment.

Purchase price: $890,000
Cash invested: $500,000

House Hacking. Currently living in the main house while renting out the back house. Airbnb'ed the guest house for awhile, but laws in Los Angeles changed and forced us into long term renting. It all worked out for the best!

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

My wife and I wanted to purchase a single family for ourselves, however, there was a private guest house in the back where we heard the previous owner used it as a short term rental.

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

Real Estate Agent. The best real estate agent, Penni Ziers.

How did you finance this deal?

Used private money from our parents. They own property themselves and actually sold one of their properties to help us.

How did you add value to the deal?

We put in $100,000 in renovations. It took about 4 months, but very happy with the results!

What was the outcome?

We didn't mean to rent out the guest house, but it has been a steady flow of income for our family and can't imagine life without it.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Two rookie
#1. Pick a place where the colors are not affected by the lighting. We wanted a beige color, but when we looked at samples our yellow lighting altered the way we saw the colors. So our first try, our contractors painted the house pastel purple. This was our fault.
#2. Our granite sample was small and when it's small you don't realize that you can feel differently as a big slab. We changed it once the slab was already cut. Costing us a lot of money.

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

Yes! Real Estate Agent, Penni Ziers. She is amazing!