All Forum Posts by: Brendan Garwood

Hello BP community - While continuing to search for my first real estate investment house hack, I came across a duplex that is turn key at a reasonable price in a great area. I intend to house hack this property. After reading the book "The House Hacking Strategy" I found myself interested in the trailer approach as I am a singe guy who could definitely live in a trailer on the property. Has anybody on bigger pockets taken this approach? If so how did it work out for you? What does the property have to be zoned in order to move a trailer onto the property to live in?

Hello BP community. I am currently looking to get into my first Duplex investment property which I plan on using as a house hack. I am looking to run the numbers on an attractive property in a great area of town within walking distance to the bars and clubs downtown. I am considering doing a 3.5% down FHA loan. The lender that I am working with informed me that I would have to pay $11300 at closing in addition to the $7700 down payment. Is this common? It seems to be a lot higher then the $3500 Brandon Turner estimates his closing costs at and would have a negative affect on the cash on cash ROI. The lender stated that the $19000 down at closing would include the following items: "3.5% down payment, appraisal, credit report, underwriting fee, processing fee, closing fee charged by the title company, interest for the first month of closing, homeowners insurance, homeowners insurance escrowed taxes, reimbursed to the seller taxes in the escrow account, appraisal, credit report recording fee by the city and the county." Does putting that amount of money down on a property make sense to you guys or is it too much out of pocket for a 220000 duplex? Thank you again in advance.

Hello All-

I hope this post finds everybody well. As a new investor looking to complete my first purchase (this is going to be a house hack), I have been having a difficult time really narrowing down which area would be the best to try this strategy. I am 22 and have a full time job but am really open to moving anywhere within 1 hour of my employment’s location as I am single. Besides the basics such as a safe neighborhood with good schools, what other points do you guys have in regards to picking a neighbor/location to invest in? What are some things that you guys looks for in the area? I live in the suburbs and would like to complete this house hack in the suburbs. Any tips would help! Thanks so much!

Thank you for the reply Connor. That is great information to know. 

BP Community - 

I am currently reading Craig Curelop's The House Hacking Strategy. I am from Michigan and looking to invest locally to use this first investment property as a house hack as well. I plan on using his trailer method to live on the property while still renting out the other units as I am fortunate enough to be able to live that way without much impact to my current life style. I have the financing to put down 20-30 percent but was still looking to get an FHA loan which would allow me to save some money on the down payment and therefore I would use that money that I saved on the down payment to create some forced equity in the property. Do I have to have the 1 property in mind to get a preapproval or can they tell me an amount that I would be preapproved for without having a specific property in mind? How would you guys go about getting a loan for a house hack? Thank you in advance for the reply! It is really appreciated.