All Forum Posts by: Andrew McCartin

@Daniel Haberkost @Sam Lewis 

@Max T. @Dylan H.

Thanks for all the helpful feedback, guys. Sounds like the consensus is to bake utilities into cost of rent, but I do also like the idea of Sam's method. 

I will try running an A/B test with both methods per Daniel's advice. Will be interesting to see which gets better results. 

Thanks for the feedback @Daniel Haberkost. That seems to be the logical approach; I guess my only real concern with that is the thought of someone looking past my listing because it appears to be more expensive than a room in another house that does not include utilities in rent. Maybe that's just a naive assumption? 

For those of you who househack using the rent-by-room strategy, do you include utilities in your rents, or split those monthly expenses among your tenants/roommates? 

I can see the pros (not having to pay out of pocket) and the cons (disputes among roommates) to doing this either way, but am curious to hear how you guys approach this. 

Thanks! 

Wondering what closing costs typically look like on the buyer side in Washington DC. I've seen percentages vary quite a bit in my research (0.8% up to 3% and beyond), so it feels like something has to be off/unaccounted for on either side of that scale.

Those of you who have purchased in the area - what should I expect and is it possible to have most of, in not all of it, wrapped into a mortgage loan?  Thoughts? 

@Russell Brazil So by your definition what would you say is the correlation between demand and appreciation in DC? I.e if I purchase a property in a neighborhood where considerable appreciation is expected over the next 3-5 years, does that necessarily mean I can expect a similar rise in rents over that time? 

@Russell Brazil I actually exchanged a few messages with Ron earlier in the week after seeing a few of his posts a while back. Based on all the deals I've analyzed so far it's hard to believe anyone can cashflow like that on a SFH house hack in a place like DC, so his story has been a constant reminder that it is possible.

Is there a sweet spot for # of bedrooms you look for (both "official" bedrooms and rooms that can easily be converted) to make it work at a 450-500k price point in this market? Hopefully that not too loaded of a question considering all the variables that go into it

I'm using rent by the room house hack strategy for a SFH in the DC area, and I'm curious to hear about the experiences of others who used (or are using) the same strategy, specifically as it related to others account for rental income long-term.

When you moved out of your first house hack, did you continue to rent by the room, or switch to renting the whole unit?

@Russell Brazil Came across this old thread and would love to know your thoughts on if or how much the neighborhoods you mentioned are still on the rise. Brookland, Eckington and Ivy City seemed to have changed a LOT in the past 3 years. What neighborhoods would you say make this list in 2020? 

@Russell Brazil The more ya know. Much appreciated 

@Russell Brazil Interesting point about FHA. Do you know of any conventional options for folks with good credit but looking for low money down?