What’s your House Hack Story?

[Jacorion Williams]

Hey Bp members, specifically house hackers, whats your story? 

I’m currently very interested in investing in real estate long term and would like to get started with house hacking soon, hopefully by the end of the year. 

Currently 22 turning 23 next month and my goal is to house hack with my partner for the next 10 years before venturing out. 

So far, I’ve been learning via reading and listening to podcasts daily for the past few months along with saving majority of my income from work to go towards my first future down payment. 

My question is for anyone that has house hack or is planning to, what’s your story? 

What was your motive for house hacking? 

Did you have any troubles or any crazy stories?

What’s are some things a newbie investor like me should watch out for or avoid followed by what should we prepare ourselves for? 

Lastly, if there was anything you could do differently, what would that be? 

Thanks again! 

[Jacorion Williams]

Quote from @Patrick McCann:

Quote from @Jacorion Williams:

Quote from @Patrick McCann:

Currently in my first house hack, a duplex I purchased in December 2022 for 444k with an 3.5% FHA, the property was in just good enough condition to qualify. When we moved in we were using the down stairs units kitchen and bathroom and living upstairs because the appliances upstairs weren't really usable and the shower had cracks. I've been rehabbing it myself since day 1. Focused on getting the rental unit finished first and did that in 2 months, have had it leased for $2300 since. Slowly finishing our unit, I gutted our kitchen and totally re did it, house is 150+ years old so I've have to do many repairs to the plaster walls, still a bathroom to gut and exterior work to do. Biggest problem I've faced is running out of money and having to save again to continue rehabbing, but duplex's in my area are now trading between 575-675k so once work is completed I expect to have 200k+ in equity. Biggest regret, not starting sooner! I waited till 29 when I knew my whole adult life it was something I wanted to do but always thought I needed more money saved or that I couldn't afford it when realistically I could've done it several years prior at a much lower price and interest rate as well. I didn't actually start researching about real estate investing till after I already started looking at properties.

Well better late than never! On the bright side you were able to add in equity! 
How long did it take since purchasing the property with having to continuously rehab at the same time? 

 Still going haha. Still have a bathroom to gut, walls and stairway to be sanded/painted, exterior trim to be replaced and the whole exterior painted.

Well good luck on that and hope it comes out great!  

[Jacorion Williams]

Quote from @Michael Orlando:

I just turned 28 I bought my duplex 4 years ago. I was able to save up a lot of money to buy it. I didn’t have a great income. I thought it would be easy.  I thought just hiring a property manager would make it really easy.  A tenant and the property management company walked all over me and costed me thousands and thousands of dollars. Since then I got into the trades actually learned how to manage a property/tenants. I found out if you need to pay someone every time something breaks you’re not going to make money.  I now am earning pretty good money and know how to do a lot of repairs myself. I have a lot more confidence when I screen for tenants. 

Things I wish I knew Are take your time getting the right tenant. It’s a lot better to have it vacant a little longer than get a bad tenant that causes headaches. I would also look into the trades if you’re not already in them. If you learn to fix houses you will never run out of work or money. I would also say if you don’t make a great income work on that before making any moves on real estate. Information online makes it seem like it’s no big deal if something breaks because you have paying tenants. It’s not always that simple.

That’s a really good idea. I thought of taking up a trade too like maybe in plumbing to fix any leaky pipes myself. 
Also, it sucks that you had to deal with a bad property manager and bad tenants but good to see that you were able to learn from those experiences!

[Jacorion Williams]

Quote from @Michael Smythe:

Did a duplex, bought with FHA 203(k) - which allows repair costs to be included in purchase mortgage.

Wasn't easy, as had to get bids from licensed contractors, even though I planned to do most everything myself.

Worked out well, refinanced out of the FHA into NOO loan and then bought another duplex with FHA and hacked that one.

 Nice!

Ideally what I want to do with multi-family units.

Also, was there anything that made it difficult to get bids or was it more of a tedious process? 

[David Krulac]

@Jacorion Williams Long story short, bought first real estate SFH, rented rooms, lived there mostly for free,Then long term rental, bought new place, rinse and repeat 1,000 times(no joke). Longer version told in Bigger Pockets Podcast #82

David Krulac

Bigger Pockets Podcast #82

[Jonathan Klemm]

Appreciate the questions @Jacorion Williams.  I've found almost all skills and life in general can be a snowball with a growth mindset!!

The equity and small amount of profit (new builds have a very slim profit margin) in the Chicago ground-up new construction was really from getting the land at a good price.  We actually started our business Quality Builders at the same time and used that as a first project launch pad!

I'd don't live in the 19 unit but it is still in our portfolio...It's in Cicero which is a western suburb of Chicago.

What is your next step in your real estate journey?

[Jacorion Williams]

Quote from @David Krulac:

@Jacorion Williams Long story short, bought first real estate SFH, rented rooms, lived there mostly for free,Then long term rental, bought new place, rinse and repeat 1,000 times(no joke). Longer version told in Bigger Pockets Podcast #82

David Krulac

Bigger Pockets Podcast #82

I’ll make sure to check it out