All Forum Posts by: Alex Winder

@Jordan Moorhead

I totally agree, I was thinking today of all the benefits of even living closer to work and house hacking. I could save money on gas and travel costs also wear and tear on my car. Also if I find an ideal listing, after closing costs and everything I don't have to worry about a full 100% mortgage. Plus its a great start to be a landlord and you don't have to pay a management company. I can't even begin to think of all the benefits of house hacking, its unreal of how great of a idea and benefit it is. I am super excited to be getting on the hunt to find a property that the numbers work.

Greetings fellow real estate investors. Today I have a question regarding house hacking in the twin cities/minneapolis area. A little background about me, I have been saving money for a house for a few years now and have around 26k sitting in the bank diligently growing every month. I live at home with my parents and would like to be moving out in the not so distant future, but I do enjoy my parents and the ability to save around 50% of my income every month. As of recently I have been informed by one of my good friends that 2 possibly 3 of our other friends are looking to get a place together, some of us or a couple of us nothing certain yet. All of my friends know that I have been saving for a house for a while now and have mentioned that if I were to buy a house that they would be interested in living with me as a renter. I recently was informed that all of these people or some of them were wanting to live together seeing as we are good friends and get along together well. What I am thinking in the realm of possibilities is buying a single family home in the eagan, burnsville, savage, apple valley, rosemount, farmington area, seeing as most of us work and frequent that general area of the suburbs. I was thinking something around 170-200k range that has at least 4 if not 5 bedrooms that needs a little bit of work that I can get for below market value. After purchasing have 3 or 4 roommates depending on the size of my house that I find in the area. At the end of the day best case scenario would be to live for close to free or possibly cash flow a little bit while having my mortgage covered every month. I really like the possibilities in this case seeing as they are good friends and would cover most if not all of my living expenses for personal residence. I would prefer to  put around 5ish percent down so that I would have more cash to work with when life happens after paying down payment closing costs and all the fees associated with buying a house. I plan to have around 30k by summer if not more if i continue at the rate i have been going saving every month. Just looking for some advice or wisdom from other bp members and if this is a good idea and how I should go about doing it or if there i anything I am missing.

@Deanna McCormick

I agree with your idea to save up some more money for my first property. I feel I have a good start but may not have a solid cushion to work from after initial down payments and different fees and closing costs when buying my first property. I will still continue to learn and seek knowledge in this field while doing that so once I see a great deal that works for my situation I can jump on it and not have to worry about funding.

@Lisa Atkinson

Yes Minneapolis has its fair share of rentals. I like the amount of people in the area which makes it easy to rent, but on the other hand quite a few homes are quite old and can definitely need lots of repairs. Good insight and definitely lots for me to consider. I believe a great realtor helps a lot. If I can focus on being ready for a rental regarding finances, knowledge, and resources while someone finds the deal I feel that kind of a resource is invaluable.

@Alexander Lang

Great insight, I can see that multifamilies would have more vacancy compared to single family homes. I never thought of it like that before thank you for that understanding. I would prefer to not live in the cities around Minneapolis being that I work in apple valley and would not want to add time to my commute which would give me less time to work on a given property. But I can respect the insight. As far as being a handyman, I am currently a mechanic so I am more than excited to get started and begin to learn the ins and outs of rehabbing and fixing up distressed properties.

@Account Closed

Thank you for you input regarding, townhouses and the ups and downs of associations. As a new investor I appreciate and enjoy knowledge on different subjects or different types of rental properties that are beneficial. I believe this information is invaluable to someone like me who would like to get started but has no clue where to begin besides growing in knowledge of the subject. You obviously have some knowledge in that field and I can appreciate the wisdom in your post from your experience. It is a lot of information to take in but again I thank you for sharing your insight and knowledge. It makes my search realistic in what I should expect out of associations.

@Amy Ranae I messaged you regarding getting together to coffee and chat

@Amy Ranae I am currently living at home with my parents saving money and hoping to start investing in real estate this year. I have considered if low down payment for a fix and flip would be a good idea, have no experience fixing internals in a house, but I am a mechanic and very handy and could see myself getting into fix and flips. Just need more experience and knowledge before I get going.

  @Amy Ranae Yes, message me the information and I will check it out.

@Scott S.

I do like that the laws are written to be worked to the landlords benefit if you are able to move ever few years. I think that is a viable option to lower your initial investment costs when it comes to investment real estate. I just love the idea of having one property cash flowing that will build on another property which builds on the next onto the next and onto the next. I just need to surround myself with like minded investors who know the local area and can help me on my journey and answer questions that I have. But First things first I need to buy that first property first so that I can begin the snowball effect and get the ball rolling.

@Todd Solberg

If minneapolis is not landlord friendly where would be a good place for multi family? St paul has a decent amount of them as well and some other areas around st paul. South of the river in the suburbs doesn't have very many that I have seen and the ones I have seen are overpriced. I feel that 25k is a nice start but will be drained rather quickly on down payments, closing costs, rehabs, vacancies and many other different factors. Right now I would like to get more knowledge on the subject of where to invest and what to invest into that will have the most long term benefit. So for now I save more money and grow my knowledge and the number of people around me that have experience in this field. But I do believe that multifamilies have a good market for rents and that they are a good introduction into the real estate market.