All Forum Posts by: Andrew Morales

I've appreciated the discussion.  We rent the MIL apartment of our home, just started this past August.  Our tenants just left for work out of country and our new tenants (to move in mid may) have already contacted us to ask what would happen if they lost their jobs.  We didn't promise anything but we did offer to let them off the hook so we could begin marketing the apartment again.  I agree that we should treat this like a business, its not about being cold, but the reality is that if they don't pay we'll have increased our family size from 5 to 7, a reality that would be hard to adapt to for my family finances in times like these.

A How do other house hackers handle this sort of situation?  Our thought is two fold; they can always sell their contract to a new tenant and if that doesn't work, it would be better to accept reduced rent than it would be receive no rent for the duration of the crisis.  Are their holes in this thinking?

I’m having a hard time deciding whether or not to sell a live in flip. We’ve asked around and have been told there will be as much as a 10% correction in the next year or so in Salt Lake City Utah which would wipe out the profit we’ve built up.

We bought 3 years ago and put in 95k in repairs and 27k in interest and fees on the mortgage. Our interest rate is 3.12% on a 15 year and we pay 1700 a month plus 300 a month in utilities. In the next 7 years we’ll need a new roof and siding. We would rent it but if the kitchen sink clogs it floods a downstairs bedroom and tv room and I don’t believe it would cash flow in either case.

If we sold today at 360k after real estate commission and paying off the mortgage we’d walk away with 143k which would be a 21k profit. We’d go and live in student housing for two years (I’m a grad school student) which saves us 1100 a month compared to staying and I’d reduce my commute by about 1.5 hours each day.

we’d take that 143 and pay off all our debt and have some seed capital for the next project.

What makes me hesitate is that we have 12 years left on the mortgage and I don’t think I can get that interest rate again for a while. Part of me wants to rent it out at a wash and start saving for the siding/roof and risk that it floods. The other part of me wants to take the lessons learned and prepare for the next project while living debt free and reducing our monthly expenses. We are totally at a loss as to the best course of action. Please help!

@Parker Lewis

Good luck Parker! Ditto to everything said so far, I'm starting out myself and have a SFH and I'm interested in hearing how this pans out. Based on the little that I know I think you might have a hard time finding something with 14k down at 3.5 that you need for an FHA and still subsidizing enough on your portion of the mortgage to make it worth it. When we were looking in SLC for a property 3 years ago we found all the duplex, triplex, and SFH with in-laws were overpriced.

Wonderful, good luck Crystal! I've been remodeling my home over the last 2 years and I'm about to finish. If I can be of any help with your goal please let me know (we live in Murray). I've done a lot of the work myself (electrical, plumbing, framing sheetrocking, plastering). And I have a tiny network of skilled workers. Not ready to pull the trigger on any deals for myself but I'm anxious to learn and grow my network.

Welcome!

What type of numbers are most people using in Utah for their analysis? Specifically cap ex, Managment, vacancy, maint and repairs etc.? I haven't gotten to the point that I'm analyzing deals but am getting close. I was thinking of 7,10,7, and 7 respectively. I'm assuming a buy and hold. What's are typical ROI that investors are seeing with 20% down?

Im interested in hearing how this turns out. I hope you update the post!

My thought is that the amount you are "paying" yourself by living in the other half is essentially your profit. With that in mind I'd use the rental calculator to see if it makes sense with two renters... I'm also interested in hearing others thoughts.

See everyone tonight at the Huddle!

Good luck, congrats!