All Forum Posts by: Andre Galaviz

 Bought the book (audible). Need to get the hard copy to highlight, bookmark, post it note, etc. Thanks for the tip. This is what I am looking for right now for an Airbnb couple relocating with two kids. 
The other tips here are great. Love this forum! 

Okay, so I have an additional question to add here. WE own the trampoline. It DOES have a net around it with a zipper. We have our place on Airbnb. This is our first property and only our second guests. We book 30+ day stays (local laws against STR in our city). We thought about allowing guests to use the trampoline if they signed a waiver, but I don't know... That seems like it would be a liability, or Airbnb, or our insurance would frown on that. Does anyone here know? Of course, I will be looking on Airbnb as well as checking with our insurance, but figured STR or MTR people could chime in. Thanks in advance for sharing your opinions, thoughts, and experiences!

We are about to rent rooms in our first investment property and I am looking at three companies this evening (I actually came here to see if there were other suggestions) Rentredi, MySmartMove, and TurboTenant. I'm going to look at the suggestions above as well, but thought I would share, from one newbie to another. Good luck @Seth Taylor!

What a great (timely) post! Thanks to all for sharing their experience here. My wife and I are shopping right now for three beds and the Zinus brand was the rec we got as well; from a different source (love ya Rob;). On Amazon Zinus gets 4.5 stars with over 10K reviews, but my wife always looks at the 1 star reviews and they all had similar stories. I think we will look into the other recs @Dave Stokley had (with thanks!) to see if they have more positive, or less negative reviews. Any other mattress/bed brands out there others recommend? Thanks again for posting @Cody Stevenson!

Hello BP Peeps,

I am trying to find a good real estate photographer. Of course, I am going to look through other avenues as well, but thought this would be the community that may have some good suggestions. If anyone has a referral, or a resource where I might find some options, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

Hey Cameron, 

Great that you are considering either as an option. My wife and I are on our first house and we are hacking it to get experience under our belt. We have two kids (13,4) and we still ultimately decided to remodel the lower level and live in it, so we could rent by room upstairs. I thought about long distance investing as well, so figured I could share my thoughts, having had a similar situation to figure out. 

I checked out David Greene's Long Distance Investing and BRRRR books and thought it would be better to buy in another state because Denver was so high priced. What we ended up figuring out though, is that without experience dealing with lenders, contractors, renters, and all the in between, we would be at a disadvantage going into another market, even ones where we had friends or family. So, house hacking became the fastest way to get going for us.

Our remodel took four weeks, just finished, and now we are ready to set up the rental space and get it on the market. I would say, if you can manage sharing space with renters, then you are helping people get into a place that may be a little more affordable and at the same time, you could be getting some income from your renters that can help you move forward. Which is where we are right now. 

Good luck! Hope this helped.
 

My immediate goal is to complete a remodel to bring a renter into our primary. My second goal is to get another property within this year. Third is to repeat this process by this same time next year and try to double it. These are all BHAGs, because I am a newbie. I can't wait to look back at this post and laugh at myself thinking "that's it? that was my BHAG?!" 

Hello BP!

My wife and I are planning on renting the downstairs portion of our house to start our investment journey. To do this we're going to add an additional room and a kitchen area to make it a 2 bed/1 bath. The updates will cost around 25K. We could pull that out of an account earmarked for the next investment property (house hack #2), but I've heard people say that they often get a HELOC on properties, so they can tap into the HELOC for any future purposes (say, updates to the next investment property).
Here are my questions;
1. Does it makes sense to get a HELOC and continue to save over the next 12 months we are obligated to remain in this property as our primary (rule for getting the HELOC as I understand it)? 
2. If yes, does it make more sense to lock the rate for the remodel costs for a longer time period (180 months), vs shorter (36 months)? Renter's monthly will cover HELOC payment in either scenario and I would want to pay off as quickly as possible. I'm thinking longer allows for reserves for vacancy, cap ex, etc.
3. Once we move out and rent both upstairs and downstairs as two units, is there anything I need to do to keep the HELOC in place?  Can it be pulled if we are not in it as a primary?

I will ask questions to potential lenders as well, but of course, any insight from experienced investors is very much appreciated!

Thanks!

Congrats @Danielle Daly! My wife and I are getting started on the same path. We have a house, so it's more about figuring out our lower level and how we can maximize the space to MTR or LTR to a few people. We have a contractor coming to look at our house and offer up some suggestions on how we can make some important changes to HH (walls, egresses, etc.) and we've connected with a few people from the BP community who have offered some great advice that is helping us move forward (@Ben Einspahr and @jeff white). I think you have hit on a few great points, looking at potential for space and looking for your non-starters (foundation work, mold, etc.) 

Super excited for you - something tells me you have all the tools and resources you need to be successful ;)

Best of luck!