All Forum Posts by: Brandon Metz

Well guys I know this post is highly opinionated but....I would like to gather some opinions on how comfortable you would feel investing in C neighborhoods. Im still looking for my first house hack and it appears the C neighborhoods may have the best bargains. Now i do see a lot of great opportunities in B neighborhoods but just not as frequent. Can someone with experience in C neighborhoods in the Cleveland area offer some input.

yes that being said i also forgot to add, if anyone has replaced knob and tube what sort of costs are we looking at. This one seems hefty af!

Hello Cleveland,

While conducting my never ending rental property search ive noticed a few things the VA might not be to certain of. A lot of these potential homes have knob and tube wiring and im having difficulty figuring out if this passes VA minimum inspection requirements. Does anyone know a great source for this? I know this varies by zip code so its been quite difficult to find a straight answer.

Yea thats what im saying $200 a month to have a house i only have to live in for one year. Id love to instantly make a profit but i think im just asking too much at that point. id pretty much instantly be green when moving out from my one ear obligation into the next property after a refinance. Id also have a whole year to force as much appreciation as i can. It seems enough people on this thread have done the exact same thing so looks like finding the best duplex deal is my best route. As always thanks to everyone so far on this thread all these multiple perspectives and tips from the more experienced ones are always a great help.

I'll be using my VA loan. Though lakewood sure is nice it's going to be way out of my range for a first property. I've mainly been looking at the C neighborhoods as my best option

@Mo Weis west side and I was looking at 200k and below for now

@Mo Weis I'm strongly looking for a duplex or quadplex that would be ideal but beating the cash offers from the already established investors is quite hard. I would come pretty close to breaking even or a small cash flow with a quad or tri but in reality a duplex may be what's most likely going to happen. I shall continue to search for new listings around the clock though as usual.

Okay the way I see it I can save a bit more for a year then at the end of my 1 year obligation as primary residence for a VA loan as soon as I move out to the next house hack I'm instantly making profit. I guess it may be asking too much to be positive right away but hey anything is possible if you search everyday

Id say i look at and run numbers on at least 10 properties a day to learn how to better do analysis and i noticed a trend i feel only house hackers can answer. I see a lot of properties that can do decent cash flow to start in the Cleveland area but with one major exception. You lose so much rental income when you must occupy one of the units. When i apply the 50/50 rule for maintenance then apply the rest to property taxes,mortgage and homeowners insurance ive noticed cash flows will usually be negative about $150-$200 even when the property passes the 2% test. This seems like its quite common with house hacking but i am still determined this is the route i want to go to to the great benefits of the VA home loan. (no PMI is my favorite :} ). I just wanted to get an opinion from other fellow house hackers if living a little in the red is such a bad idea. after all paying about $200 a month out of my own pocket is still significantly different than my current $800 rent i pay.

Okay that's what I was thinking even if I great reduce my expenses by a couple hundred dollars from the $800 I'm currently paying for a 2 bedroom apartment then I still come out on top in terms of money saved