All Forum Posts by: Caitlin Daniel

 wow! That’s exactly the kind of stories I needed to hear to make sure I protect myself with the right set up! Thank you!!

keep it coming  :-)

I just bought my first home and I’ll be house hacking. I’ve never had a roommate besides my ex-husband which obviously doesn’t count. But I work a lot and am not home much so I think it will be good, especially because they will pay most of my mortgage. 

I will be renting out 2 of 3 rooms(I’m living in the 3rd. I would love to hear horror stories, happy endings, and great screening tips that have saved you headaches while living with strangers in your home. 

let the stories begin! 

Do I pay down mortgage to remove PMI faster?

I am in escrow on my first ever house, it will be my primary home. It’s three bed two bath on 6 trees acres with animal corrals, outhouse, fire pit, etc. I will be renting out a room, probably AirBnBing the other room, as well as putting some of the property locations up for HipCamp and putting money into transitioning some of the outbuildings into tiny home dry cabins with compostable toilets to be able to rent them out and use the profits to save up to install actual plumbing down the road. 

I'm trying to decide if I keep putting profits into this to get the PMI off the mortgage (I only put 5% down). The PMI is about $120 a month, my interest rate is 2.85% and I will have 266k in the loan. I know I should keep the cheap debt and save money for purchasing a multi-family next, but is it wise to put all the profit towards my primary until my PMI is gone and then save for the rental? I won't be able to save up to purchase my next rental probably until my market dips again in a couple years.

Just started escrow on a property and I want to get roommates immediately. I’m a first time home buyer and I’ll be house hacking plus creating camping spots. 

I’ll be 15 minutes from a college town, but living on acreage in the country. About 25 minutes from the downtown of the nearest big city. There are 2 rooms that share a bathroom that I’ll be renting out. I’m all new to this, so I would love any screening tips you have or contract lease agreement wording that is helpful. 

How do I attract the right kind of roommates that I want to live with? Thinking about advertising for someone that has a horse so it can be a combined room + horse boarding situation. The college has an equestrian team… 

I’ll be installing an RV hookup also, so any advice on those renters or agreements, websites to use, tips on the installation of a dump line into septic tank…

I’ve got plans for a couple camp spots with teepees also. Anyone used Hipcamp? I’ll be adding an outdoor shower and toilet for those. Would love all the experiences and lessons to learn from.

thank you!!!

can you please enlightenment me as to what a “conservative underwriting technique” would look like to you? 

Recently I’ve been looking into the ~18 year cycle of rising prices and the inevitable correction once people can’t afford housing anymore or the new home supply outweighs the population.

Obviously, we have been on an upward tick since the recession, so any investors starting after the crash have had a high chance of success (if investing smartly in the first place). but eventually it will correct... I’m curious to hear from anyone that has been investing since before 2000, and how the crash affected your strategy and if you are preparing for the next correction that is around the corner in 4ish years?

Thank you! I just left a message at your phone number 

Hi, I’ve been looking into house hacking as a way to supplement my income and eventually gain financial freedom so I can be a present at-home mom. It would be my first home purchase, I have no debt and qualify for $250k with my income . Recently I’ve felt a confusing haze fall over me with goals and I’d love to hear from you that have more wisdom and experience or have gone through similar situations. 

I’m recently divorced after 10 year military relationship. We didn’t have kids but I want them. I’m 32 and female, so that’s a biological countdown(although I know I want to foster/adopt also) I’m not against being a single mom(adopting before finding a partner) but my career(forensics with the Sheriff) keeps me on call and out in the middle of the night at crime scenes so I would need a strong community support to sustain the child until I can have 100% passive income. 

After divorce I moved across the country to start over. I specifically chose Spokane, WA for many reasons and I want to stay here, raise my kids here. But, most of my family lives 3-8hrs away and I only knew one person before moving here so I need to build community.  

My dilemma is time and goal direction. 
There is SO much to learn about RE investing. Every podcast I listen to I learn something.  

I also am pursuing a side hustle of RE drone photography so I’m studying for the pilot test. I still need time to make friends to get a community to help raise my future kids until I get financial freedom. I would also like to find a new life partner which requires dating. I have a horse that I’m conditioning to compete in an 100 mile horseback race within a year or two(which also doubles as my gym/workout). I also feel called to service and so I’m involved with a local church. 

I feel like I’m an inch in 20 directions instead of 20 inches in one direction but I don’t know how to put any of them down because they all feel equally as important. I feel run-down thinking that if I put all my time into career/investment building that I’ll miss opportunity to build community and find a life partner. On the other hand, putting too much into only building connections will probably prolong my road to financial freedom. If I was 25 I would probably feel differently, but the world looks different at 32 post-divorce starting at the bottom of the corporate ladder in a new city and wanting to start a family. There are only 24 hrs in a day! 

Please help with wise words,

-Scattered but hopeful

Thank you all so much for talking to me! I’m still analyzing deals and I 100% want to be in something by the end of the year, yea I don’t want to be paying someone else’s mortgage. Where I live they house back and have 2 renters that I know covers their mortgage, but I don’t qualify via W-2 to buy a similar half million dollar property and I’m just now networking and learning about hard/private money  

The issue I run into is all these numbers don’t work for me as I’m only doing 5% down to save my reserves for updates in the units. The rent I would be getting doesn’t cover the mortgage at these rapidly inflating prices. I know rent will also rise due to our 1% unoccupancy, but I can’t count on that I need to do the numbers of what’s real, now. At least every deal I’ve analyzed would have to rent above what current rent prices are to make it break even or cash flow. 

I just looked at a house that was valued at $50k 5 years ago and is now listed over $200k and there doesn’t appear to have been any major updates since then, it smells like smoke, and they already had offers when I called just hours after listing. 

My salary hasn’t risen 200% in the last 5 years to keep up. Thanks for your advice folks! I’ll keep trying and learning. 

@Roy Nash thank you! I have begun to do this and yes, it's very sad how quickly the price is ballooning and looking at what sold a few months ago just doesn't seem to be relevant to today! I've started to wonder how to get invested in outside of MLS so I might be changing focus here soon.