All Forum Posts by: Ali Soomar

Thanks so much for insane amount of help! I also had another quick question. When renting a house, I find that it’s a little easier to figure out how much you could rent the entire property for for based off of how much other properties are going for in the area. I use zillow or facebook marketplace to find this info.

Is there a specific technique I should be doing to figure out how much I could charge for a single room in a property? The only thing I could find on that is through Facebook marketplace, but there are very minimal posts in any given area compared to traditional renting (which makes sense). Another thing I use is comparing it to 1 bedroom apartments in the area as well. I’m wondering what else could I go off of to determine house hack rental rates?

@Danny Webber Thanks so much for that insight! Is there potential for other investments in Southeast Austin before the huge haul of development comes in? I may be thinking in the wrong way, but there has to be some kind of way to get in on properties before more development comes to the area right?

If not, what do you think are other up and coming areas in Austin where it makes sense to house hack? I've been looking at listings the past couple weeks, and couldn't find an area that I was really certain about in terms of rental income from roommates.

@Suzy Sevier Thanks so much for that! I'll definitely look into it! As of now, there isn't much, but there's a huge amount of planned development within the next year or so that I feel will drive prices up. I'm completely fine if I miss out on rental payments if it means that the value of the house will increase significantly. This is within a mile from the "domain-like" project that will start at the beginning of 2021 and if Tesla comes to Austin (announcement expected in a few weeks), the home is less than a mile from that factory as well.

There are homes in the area that are up for rent that would barely break even or cost me a little out of pocket for me in this area currently. However, I will be living in this property for at least the next couple years.

I just feel that there is so much upside potential for this area that I don't mind sitting on the property for a little! However, I don't know if that's a dumb decision for my first dice into REI.

Hey everyone!

I recently graduated and I am starting work in Austin soon. Instead of paying rent and throwing that money out the window, I really want to get into house hacking as an alternative to start my REI journey. I feel like there is no better time than now to invest in Austin, but I have a couple questions about starting out.

Initially I wanted to purchase a used home in Austin in neighborhoods where there are signs of renovations going on, which would allow me to scoop up an old trashy property and put some money into it to gain immediate value. Then I would proceed to renting out the individual rooms. However, with this method, there is a lot more money needed and I'm not sure how intense the renovation process will be. Additionally, I found it really hard to find a relatively cheap property with at least 3 bedrooms while also being cashflow positive.

My parents suggested purchasing a new home instead, and I thought this was out of question because I thought there wasn't any new homes being developed in high demand areas where I could make a decent amount from renting rooms. However, I came across a new area that is being developed in Southeast Austin. Currently, there isn't much going on in the area, but I could purchase a much larger house (2600+ sqft) with more rooms (4 bedrooms), and a significantly cheaper price than the rest of Austin. This area is super close to upcoming projects like Velocity and Austin Green, so I think it has insane potential! I know I might not be able to get people to rent out rooms immediately, but I know that once the development starts happening, it should be super easy and the rent I could charge would be a lot higher. Also, I would expect the house to appreciate insanely. I'm completely fine if I can't rent out immediately because I will still be able to cover the mortgage myself, but I definitely do not want to be in a situation where 2-3 years from now I won't be able to find people to rent to.

I was just wondering if this opportunity is too good to be true...  or if there's something I am missing... or if I'm miscalculating the risk that's involved with doing this? I would also love to hear more about what anyone else thinks about the future projects/development going on in Southeast Austin and the best way to go about taking advantage of this opportunity before it's too late. Additionally, I would love to get some more advice from anyone else that has house hacked in Austin and what's worked for you!