All Forum Posts by: Bradley Dosch

Hey Adam, great questions and super cool that you're doing so much research on getting started. The short answer is yes, but let's dive into that more. 

First off, the leverage you can get with house hacking is super powerful. The fact that you can control an asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with 3% down is pretty neat. Just from a perspective of appreciation, loan pay down, tax benefits, and merely getting started gaining experience is huge in my book.

You've done a great job of analyzing deals in your market and trying to make them work with a rent by the room scenario. 

If you are living there, make sure to take into account the rent savings/opportunity cost. For example, if you'd be paying $1k in rent if you didn't buy a house hack, factor that in as it 100% affects your personal cash flow. Even if you're not living for free, it is almost always worth paying a little bit out of pocket for place to live in that you own. 

Building off of this, make sure to analyze the deal for when you move out. This should obviously boost your cash flow and then you'll have a full time rental property that you put 3% down for - pretty special.

You can then repeat this process with low down payments. Stay patient and allow rents and your equity to grow each year. Few years down the road you'll be in a great place with a portfolio of houses you put little money down on. Ok - I'm getting carried away from your question :)

It is possible to cash flow with 3% down, although typically creative rental strategies like rent by the room, medium and short term rentals are needed. This is of course more work but in a neat location like Athens, you should have plenty of demand.

The reason for all my other paragraphs is to encourage you to look big picture with this house hacking journey. Cash flow is important, but in my experience it hasn't been the most powerful metric. 

Hope this helps, good luck Adam!

Hey Emond, super cool you want to start house hacking with multi family. On this specific question, my only piece of advice would be to get it thoroughly inspected (especially the major systems) and have some healthy reserves for when things go wrong. Good luck Emond!

Hey Henry, super exciting you want to try out STR at your place. You could and should use both/ as many platforms as you can. You can sync the calendars together. Not sure if you live there or not - I think you can only rent entire space on VRBO rather than just portions of a house. Good luck Henry!

Super cool. I live in Snohomish, so I'll have to go check it out. Love that it's on so much acreage. 

Hey Ryan, good question and great that you're starting so young. To answer your question - everywhere is a good place to house hack! San Diego is no exception, Las Vegas is no exception. Both places will have plenty of people looking to rent and great appreciation. I would focus more on where you want to live and house hack accordingly.

Hey Cody, awesome questions and mindset you have. It sounds like you have a great start. I would definitely start house hacking as soon as you can. California definitely gets a bad rap but riverside is a great place to house hack imo. Good price to rent ratios and lots of young people who are okay with shared spaces. I also usually recommend against waiting - the old adage goes 'don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait'. The compound interest that can start when you're 22 is incredible. I bought my first house hack 3 years ago also at 22 and the equity I have in it makes up the majority of my net worth. 

You're also super young and just graduating so if you want to live in a new place, this is a great time to do so! I would pick where you want to live and then design your house hack around that. I grew up in Southern California and have house hacked in the Denver and Seattle area, both places I've loved living! Now is the time to take massive action on what you want! Good luck Cody

Hey Christopher, it's awesome that you are jumping in and learning as much as you can. Depending on where you do it, $9k is a great start for down payment and closing costs on a house hack. I would just keep saving up money, learning more about house hacking, and then going for it! Good luck Christopher!

Adding a 4th bedroom tends to add more value to a home than more living space. You already touched on the extra cash flow. @Rick Albert makes a good point about the floor plan though. Hopefully you are able to make the extra bedroom look good from a layout POV. Keep us posted Eric!

Love hearing your design take on each of these unique houses. Those numbers look awesome!

I've bought SFHs with lots of separation so far (separate basement apartments). Haha yes patience can be tough haha! Go ahead and buy more rentals while you're waiting to house hack again