Is there a new way for house hack in market????

Ok, let's just start by thanking Mr. Brandon Turner for creating a term of house hack.

What is house hack?

in layman's term, you buy a property(mostly multi-family), live in one part and rent out other. Tenant's rent help you out to pay the mortgage and you also get the experience of being a landlord.

So when I heard and learn about it in details from biggerpockets, I realized this is a really powerful tool that can help us create wealth and gives us an idea about landlording landscape.

But when I started to search for these kind of properties, I quickly realized numbers are not pretty with most of multi-family homes in my area(suburban Philadelphia) and they were not as desirable as single family homes. So what to do???????

Well, at that time I decide to look for a deal. If I can get 20% equity after repairs and all other expense in one of my nicer areas, whichever comes first I will grab it, either single family, townhome or multi-family. Because at that time I was renting on month-to-month basis which was really expensive.

So after many failed offers, finally got one single family home in really nice neighbourhood via hudhomestore, where my criteria got satisfied. There is probably really long, complex and exciting journey to find that home and renovation , but probably will discuss that in other blog post.

Now up until now me and my wife discussed about house hacking, its pros and cons many times, but she was happy to get single family because she is a big believer of one step at at time. Why ? Well, at that point it was only 3ish years since I been in USA and I did not know much about real estate, renovation or anything overall. Our little secret - I didn't know what HVAC means a year ago. :D

After settlement, me and my wife was checking our newly purchased home with happiness and with fear of all renovation that we have to start ASAP that we don't know jack-squat about. I was taking stairs to go upstairs and I had an ahhahh moment, WHY NOT DO AIRBNB?? So I instantly told my wife lets do that and she shot me down as fast as I told her. "This is our home. I won't let a complete stranger come in my home and stay a night. what about our security?"- she said. I instantly came up with an idea."OK, honey. This second entrance directly connects to upstairs. We will put a door where the opening is and then we and guest will be completely separate."-I said. Now she was interested and she told me "We will see when time comes, let's move in first."

Ok, now fast forward 3-4 months, with all sweat and draining bank accounts for renovations, home was almost done. We moved in and of course, small repair stuff, as usual, are going but nothing big. I asked her, let's start Airbnb then. So with Black Friday nearby, I read a book "getting paid for your pad" and bought all furniture to finish our upstairs one room in about $250. She asked me again about the door and I simply said -"Lets first establish that we will get guests. If yes, then we will see."She was onboard but at that time she made sure that we are only renting when I am fulll day home. 

After our first 2-3 customers, me and her both realized there is nothing to be afraid of. So we as of right now hold off to make a door. Now at first, my wife thought we will not get much clientele and I will give up about Airbnb but to our surprise, we listed our space on Dec 8,2017 and with in 21 days, we had 16 days full, even though I put too much price during Christmas and new year long weekend. Up until today we earned $550 and keep in mind we are just strarting out, so I leave our prices lower than the competition.

During the same time in December, I also rented out my 2 car garage for $250/month.

Now we both realized we are on to something. Our goal is to replace our mortgage, tax and insurance through this income stream and I honestly think we will. We are also planning to convert another upstairs bedroom for Airbnb.

I am really excited to see where this journey take us but this is just one of million example that how creativity with little bit of courage in real estate gets you beyond where you think you will be.