House Hack turned rental property

[Ryan Riches]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Colorado Springs.

Purchase price: $355,000
Cash invested: $5,000

Purchased this property as our primary residence with the intention of House Hacking. The house has a walk-out basement with 1 bed 1 bath and a full living area.We furnished the basement and rented it through Airbnb - the income fully covered our mortgage and utilities! After living there for a year we moved out and rented it as a duplex. We have Long term renters on the main level, and rent the basement to travel nurses.

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

After discovering Bigger Pockets I became fixed on the idea of buying a house that would minimize our living expenses! After a lot of searching and many duplex tours, we finally found this single family property that could easily be converted to House Hack in the short term. Since it was zoned R4 it has investment potential for the future as well!

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

We used a Realtor in Colorado Springs and found the property on the MLS.

How did you finance this deal?

We put 5% down and used a conventional loan.

How did you add value to the deal?

We installed a kitchenette in the basement and added a door to the stairwell to separate the units.

What was the outcome?

The house hack covered our expenses while living there, and renting the space as 2 units increased our cashflow.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Always get a sewer scope. We found that the sewer line was broken and ended up costing the seller close to $20k to repair.

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

JD Gunter did an exceptional job guiding us through the process, and Ashton Brooks at Fairway helped us work out the financing.