All Forum Posts by: Andrew Powers

Congrats! For not-your-forever-home, there's a balance between making value-add improvements and making the house your own.. I have to catch myself sometimes from doing work that's not worth it long term as I won't be there forever.

Hi Lance, I'm interested to join! I have a house hack in metro Detroit and looking at buying the next property in the same area or Cincinnati. I'll send you my email. Thanks 

Security cameras, signs in the yard, sit and wait for the people and take pics for evidences, ...

If you're putting furniture in a brand new house with fancy amenities, maybe new is best. Otherwise you can get good used furniture on FB marketplace or craigslist. Estate sales are a good idea.

Yes same here, my house is filled with interesting repairs to say the least. It's been a rental for most of its life. I've made a simple checklist system the first few months living at my house for maintenance / repairs. For example, each section of the house is categorized and work like filter replacements, roof inspections, etc are all considered in a schedule format. This helps reduce unnecessary repairs and can be passed on to a property manager or contractor.

I've had some major repairs done on my house (expected and budgeted before moving in) and it's always worth getting at least 3 quotes & feel out the contractors. I've had same contractor do the boiler and hot water tank in my house, and plan to use them in the future.

My house is a large single family that I am house hacking (renting rooms), so it directly benefited me to put in insulation to reduce utilities. Probably not an immediate priority to put in more insulation for a tenant occupied unit, but it's definitely a nice gesture and shows you are a good landlord. Nonetheless it's pretty cheap and quick to do.

Hi Corey, Bigger Pockets provides a deal analysis calculator that is free to use (for awhile). It is under the "Tools" tab. I suggest running through that. There are youtube tutorials for it. It was really helpful for me in purchasing my first property. Make sure that you do deal analysis with conservative numbers to keep your investment safe from unexpected circumstances.

Hi William, welcome to BP. I suggest educating yourself as much as possible in parallel with work and whatever side hustle you do. Go to the BP Bookstore tab and there's alot of good content to read up on. Also listen to the BP podcasts.

There's alot of debate on whether investors "should" become realtors or not. I would suggest a forum search for similar topics.

A suggestion for making side income & learning real estate would be to buy your first house to "house hack"... rent out other rooms in the house, or if a duplex+ you can rent out the other unit. Many people on BP (including me) started out this way. If you calculate the number right, you can live for free or even make money above the expenses of owning a home. Either way if you can target to live for free, this removes the cost of renting which is extra savings for paying loans.

Congrats on house hacking! What else have you found annoying / needing maintenance on your house since it's old?

One suggestion to save on heating / cooling bills is to put in insulation board and spray foam insulation where there are drafty areas. In my old house, the basement needed a lot of attention so putting in lots of extra insulation helped saved $$$

My 2 cents without reading all the posts... in general I think it comes down to your goals, finances, and worst case scenario mind set.

-Goals: is your goal to stay in a job forever or do REI / work for yourself full time? Do you plan to acquire more properties or not?

-Finances: what is you / your family's expenses every month vs income from the rentals you have? Consider the extra costs when leaving, ie health care. Write it all out in a simple excel.

-Worst case scenario: realistically, what is the worst thing that could happen? If you were to quit, can you in the worst case go back to your current job or get another job? I'd say probably as you seem to have the skills to acquire multiple rentals. Yes, we are in weird times and no one knows anything about what's going to happen next, but also you can't time things perfectly... if you tried that then you probably wouldn't quit.

All this depends on your risk level / confidence in making your next move. I am not for or against in any way as it's a personal decision based on the above.

Hi Jacob, a big part of my answers to your questions are covered by 3 things: strategy, financing, comfort level. 

-Strategy: is your goal to conserve as much cash up front when purchasing a home or pay it off as much / as quickly as possible? Also are you looking to purchase a home so you can live for free or are you looking for long term appreciation?

-Financing: you can get different loans for different types of properties (unless you plan on cash). Here are some examples of low down payment loans, but investigate more please... Example 1: FHA can cover a single family home or up to a 2 unit home (I believe) with down payment around 3.5% to 5%. Example 2: first time homebuyer conventional loan for single family house allows 3% downpayment.

-Comfort level: do you and your spouse have a minimum level of comfort? Can you purchase a large single family and rent out the rooms while sharing common living areas like kitchen and bathrooms? Or would the requirement be that you have your own living space separate from tenants?

Use the BP calculator to run numbers and be conservative. Know the numbers and be real with them before jumping in on something and hoping it works... also balance this with knowing this is just your first house. There's a lot of learning in just going through the process for the first time.