All Forum Posts by: Becky Marsh

I'm looking for a new tenant for a condo right now. One person came to see it, she would be moving in with her 9 year old son, but she hasn't had regular income. Says she's in the process of starting her own business. She came with her male relative who says he'd be helping to pay the rent (they currently live with him). He wouldn't live there though, which is important since the condo association has a two occupancy limit on this one. It's a studio not that big for a mom and kid, but they want to stay in this school district where the kid has all his friends.

I'm not sure if this is a situation I should consider or how I'd screen them? I usually ask for an employer reference and previous landlord reference, but she wouldn't have either of those. I do credit/background check too. Should I be getting the reference and income verification for the male relative? But then showing in the lease that he's not living there?

Also, I have no lack of great tenants applying. I sympathize with their situation of wanting to keep the kid in the same school. The rest of this town is pretty much just SFHs. The next town over has apts. They seem to be a family of Brazilian immigrants, helping each other out.

Wow, thanks for all the detailed replies! It's great to hear that properties are working as investments in either state. I'm a native NHerite and see a lot of pros to living/investing in that state in the longer term. Will likely go with Northern MA for this first househack though for my current work and I can always get another property up North later. I really appreciate the insight from everyone!

Hi everyone! I'm just starting out and hoping to get some advice. I love the idea of house hacking and since I'm a freelancer (with lots of tools!) doing the property management should fit into my schedule fine. My income varies a lot month by month though. It's about half from many w2 jobs and half from 1099 jobs. Does anyone have a lender to recommend? I'm not sure next steps and somewhat worried how a lender would make sense of all this. Fortunately I do have excellent credit. Since I would live there I could use an FHA loan.

I've been looking at Salem and Nashua, NH. Also seeing buildings that should cash flow in Lowell. Any big difference between land-lording in NH or MA? I work all around the Boston area so exact location isn't that critical. Either a duplex or big house with rooms I could rent out would work so I've been doing some practice deals analysis on those.