All Forum Posts by: Anthony Swain

@Ray Hage Thank you my friend!

That 5% conventional came in clutch! The seller wanted nothing to do with FHA, but we wanted to use leverage so the conventional loan for MF came at perfect time.

instead of $84k or $113k down we only needed $28.5k. 

I hope the house hacking keeps being prosperous for you too 🤝

If you add in our potential equity gained after renovations, then the NROI skyrockets!

For example, our ARV is $675k, so our initial equity gained would be around $144,148.

NROI= ($9,556+$16,308+$144,148)

                           $75k

NROI= 226%

@Orane Jacobs

"Is it worth it?"

It kind of depends on your definition. 

Do you love San Diego and want to stay? I would assume yes, because everyone I've ever met loved it haha. 

How much is your current rent or cost to rent a similar property you are looking for? What is that delta? i.e. $3000 to rent vs $2000 to house hack. In that scenario, then it makes sense to house hack, lower your housing expense, gain appreciation, loan paydown, and have your own place. 

I'd say run numbers on target properties, calculate your ROI, monthly costs, monthly income, etc. to see if it makes sense.

IMO, if you loveee San Diego and you plan on staying long term, then buying into a solid house hack can be a big wealth builder for you and you will have a place to call your own in an awesome city.

Good luck Orane! 

Hey @Dylan S. sounds like a unique loan program. I'm sure it has something to do with the housing affordability in CA :o. If I was to win that lottery, I'd probably look to buy the best property I could afford and never sell haha  Albeit, there is probably other fine print.

To my knowledge, you can keep an FHA loan after you leave. In that scenario, you would pay PMI for the life of the loan regardless of your equity percentage. Many people refinance out of FHA into conventional to remove PMI and potentially use their FHA loan again on another property. *You can only have one FHA loan at a time

I'd consult with a lender or two to give you a much deeper scope of your loan options and what makes the most sense.

I am not a lender. This is just to my basic understanding.

-Ant

@Logan Koch Thank you Logan! Still learning and growing, but wouldn't have even started the journey without taking the leap on a house hack. 

You're right! So many "levers" to be pulled in house hacking to add into the equation. 

You mentioning this made me think about another lever. The equity gains from our renovations in year one. I'll have to add that into my final NROI in another post. 

Take care

-Ant

Thank you @Kai Kopsch. I'm glad we took the first step. We're learning and growing for sure!

@Joy Hey!

It sounds like you're being creative with your extra space. Do you know anyone who has successfully done this? Do you attend any local meet-ups? If so, maybe try to connect with someone else who has done what you're trying to accomplish. If you don't go to meet-ups, then here is a great reason to! haha.

To piggyback off @Jeremy Jareckyj, I'd check your local regulations to be sure this is allowed in your city/zoning. It would not be a fun scenario, to do it, then find out it is illegal :o. 

Good luck with it!

-Ant

@Brian Sardinskas GREAT POINTS again man!

I think self-management is more than doable with all the awesome property management software out there. For example, BP members already get access to RentRedi and Stessa. I personally use Avail for PM & Stessa for accounting/book keeping. Super user friendly for both. I spend probably hour managing my house hack per month. 

As far as lawn maintenance, you could be looking down the barrel of $200+ a month for basic lawn care. If you would rather pay that monthly to take a task off your plate, then go for it. If you have an hour every couple weeks to cut the grass, then just buy a mower like Brian mentioned. Maybe you can even take turns with your fiance haha (jk). 

I hope this extra bit of info helps! 

Hey @Benjamin Sulka

Good luck on your house hacking endeavors. I saw some of your previous posts, so I'm glad you're getting closer to your first.

I think your rent sounds pretty cheap between you and your fiance now, but I also don't know the COL in your area.

Maybe if you found something comparable in price or slightly less, then it could still math out, because you'll be benefiting from appreciation, loan amortization, and potentially a housing expense decrease over the long term even if slightly. 

Your numbers seem pretty conservative to me, especially your vacancy. That is close to 1 month vacancy every year. I feel like if you're paying a PM another 10%, I'd hope they weren't allowing almost a month vacant every year. With that being said, have you considered self-management as a house hacker. Even if you just do it in the short term, then maybe you'd save 10% there and be efficient enough to cut your vacancy % down to 5? (Food for thought)

10% for Cap Ex & 5% for maintenance sounds fair and consistent with many BP suggestions.

If it is value add and you do renovations, then hopefully your place will be "like new" and won't have many of those repairs/maintenance/cap ex issues early on. 

Ben, I hope some of these thoughts help your decision making process. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to share my experience or be a fly on the wall to bounce some ideas off of. 

You got this though! You sound like you're very educated and are ready to take action!

-Ant, fellow house hacker haha

Hey @Max McQueen!

I loveeee where your head is at! You're wanting to get into some great strategies. The small multi-family and MTR approach can be a good one. If you house hack either, then you can put yourself into an even better wealth building position. 

4-PLEX IDEA

If you find a four plex in a good area for a reasonable price point, then you can leverage a low down payment option if you were to house hack. You could live in one of the units and rent out the others either LTR, MTR, or a mix of both. Maybe you could move into one, rent one or two as MTR, then slowly transition all of the units to MTR if you've seen success. 

IMO, I think a 4-plex with smaller units can actually be a great MTR opportunity. It seems like traveling professionals, many interns, and even other professionals are tending to look for smaller spaces if they are traveling alone. For example, if you have a 4-plex with all 1/1s or 2/1s, then maybe you can nail their price range and be booked consistently.

SFH/Duplex as MTR

This is actually what I'm doing right now. We bought a duplex to house hack and MTR/STR the other unit. I love this option, because you can leverage low down payment, get benefits of real estate, learn a lot of valuable RE skills, and can maximize your income with a furnished rental.

As a SFH, you could potentially rent out rooms or an additional space out as MTR/STR, but there is potentially less privacy. I think that is a decision based on your situation & goals.

I'm not sure what your market rates, prices, or demand are, but I'd suggest analyzing both of the strategies you mentioned and see what numbers make the most sense. Go after whatever ROI & NROI math out the best! Haha

Good luck @Max McQueen! Keep us updated on how things go and please feel free to reach out with questions or to chat RE.