All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

@Brandon Morgan I’ve house hacked single family and am currently living in one side of a duplex I bought for investment purposes.

Personally, now that I’m middle aged the thought of continuing to share my living space with roommates has lost its appeal. It was fine in my 20s and 30s but now that I’m closer to 50 I’m much less flexible than I was when I was younger.

If you grew up in a large family or have had roommates at college or other situations a SFH that you hack some rooms is a great idea. If you know your personality and you're more rigid and unbending then I'd recommend a duplex/multi family type of situation.

@Chandra Faulk I’ve just listed a 2/1 apartment in New Hampshire. In 5 days I have only gotten about 10 inquiries. 3 months ago when I did my last listing I had 60 inquiries after 5 days. Markets are slowing and we’re in an off-season now.

Depending on what the issues are with the credit scores I might consider lowering my credit requirements. Especially if it’s younger applicants.

So far the only applicants I’ve gotten on the hook for my unit were a younger couple who were very upfront that their credit was a little bit challenged.

I encourage you to be flexible but still be sure to use sound judgment.

@Brody Veilleux I keep individual checking accounts for all my properties and have mortgage accounts on most of them. I find the individual accounts help keep income and expenses separated by property which is useful for tax time in my opinion. It allows my accountant to easily manage the depreciation by property which he has done. My tax return was 62 pages long this year.

All of my properties and mortgages are currently with the same bank so I can easily see them all on one App. I do have accounts with 2 other banks and use those Apps as well.

My bookkeeper (who is a new addition to my team this year) has just integrated the first of my business credit cards into Quickbooks. I plan on getting the other one added soon. This is important because it keeps you from missing out on the electronic expenses that are a little more difficult to keep track of. At least they were for me.

As far as savings accounts I’m not sure why you would need a bunch of those but if it makes sense to you then go for it. I only have savings accounts for my security deposits.

@Larry Nielsen There’s some good ideas in the posts.

Personally I just raise the rent to close to market value. I just bought a 6 unit building where rents were under market value by $350-$650 which for one unit was almost 45% under market rent.

I have started raising rents to market rent one unit at a time to avoid a total tenant turnover all at once.

The first tenant I raised $650 and they contacted me to find out why they had been singled out and I had to explain that the increases were going to be across the board. For now this tenant has stayed.

The second was raised by $450 and has opted to leave. This tenant informed me they had found a new place but that they had to stay through November which was within the period prior to the increase. (I gave about 45 days notice).

I will renovate this unit come December and probably schedule the next increase for February. I’d like to go faster but my team is busy with other projects at different locations.

@Sergio P Ramos in my area these types of training burns are still common. I can think of 2 that were done in the past 7 years. Our volunteer fire department invites surrounding departments to participate.

There will likely be some debris left over as the others said.

@Karina Busch It shouldn’t be that expensive to get it done right. I’ve got 8 properties and 31 units and am in with my bookkeeper for 2 years at about $2400. Which I think is reasonable.

However contact your bookkeeper ASAP to find out if she can continue doing your books. I lined up a bookkeeper in May of 2023 and had several months of follow ups with her only to discover in February 2024 that she had had a “life changing family event” and had not been in her office for about 5 months and had never even started my books.

It took me filing an extension and going through 3 more bookkeepers before I found one who was qualified and wanted to work with me.

Don’t wait! Reach out to her this week.

@Max Servais Try some small, independent insurance agencies. I’ve had very good luck keeping my rates lower through a small company than quotes I received from the big name insurance companies.

@Robert Bishop I’ve been house hacking for 30 years.

I strongly recommend a 2-4 unit house hack when you’re 18. If you plan to attend college that location might be a great place to start. If so, and it’s not in your home town you might consider living in the dorms the first year while you meet people and use that time to scout out the area and find good places to buy your building.

Sometimes it’s the experience of college that’s more important than the degree. You will learn a lot during that time that will help you grow and mature besides the course information.

@Evan T. Ong To me the actual EXPERIENCE of college was more important than the degree itself. I moved away from home into a new area that had totally different views than people in my home town did. For the first time I had a credit card (pay it off every month) and bills to pay. I had to learn to navigate public transportation which was non existent where I grew up. I met people from other backgrounds, religions, and cultures that I had never been exposed to before.

If you can find an affordable way to get a degree it should hopefully improve your earning potential. I would recommend picking a major that has high earnings potential, not something like a degree playing the Trombone.

Think about your current passions and what you might enjoy doing first the next 10-15 years while you begin your investing journey.

If you’re really interested in real estate you can even get a degree in it if you want to, I know one university that at least used to have a good real estate degree was the University of North Texas. I’m sure there are many.

I would recommend continuing to educate yourself on real estate if you’re interested. Read more books. There’s a learning curve in getting started but once you are in control of your own self once you turn 18 you will be free to buy a house hack and get started.

I didn’t really get started investing until I was 43 and now 5 years later at 48 I’m just about financially free. I’ve never made more than $45,000 at a W-2. So financial freedom can be achieved on a small income. It would have been easier if I had made more. My point is that you can easily achieve financial freedom by the time you’re 30-35 if you work at it.

@Aya Itazu The tenants know rent is due on the 1st. No reason to send invoices.