All Forum Posts by: Cameron Mertens

 We had discussed a few options on trying to keep the triplex, but with the amount of $ we are going to realize from the sale compared to rates for cash out refi, heloc, just keeping and renting out the unit we were living in we wouldn't have had the cash and flexibility to move on a much more expensive new primary that fits our family needs much better than our current situation, so we ended up settling on the sale as the best way to be able to realize these goals. Whether or not we are right or not, we close within the next day or 2 and are moving forward with the cash in hand and looking to create a new action plan for what we want to do and everything! I have been looking at Michigan as one of my options, I have seen some multifamily options that seemed on paper like they might cashflow $1200-1500 after everything, but we would need to run the full numbers and everything if that's the actual direction we want to take. The midwest has definitely been toward the top of our potential investment list for sure.

 Hi Erik, thanks for the reply! My ultimate goal is to be making enough passive income from real estate that I can quit my current job and spend my time however I want, as quickly as possible. I haven't really determined an exact number I want to reach before I quit, because I have excellent benefits and perks and such, but $10k/month in passive income would definitely be enough for me to achieve this. My wife loves her job and doesn't anticipate quitting at all, but the ability for both of us to do this would ultimately be nice. Our biggest immediate goal we feel is to find as much cashflow as possible to lower our upcoming primary mortgage, which we anticipate will be $3500-4500 depending on what we can find in this area. If we could figure out something that brings us down $2000 or even more, we could then focus on applying all the $ we are saving not putting it into a big mortgage into growing our real estate portfolio, at least this idea works in my head. We are definitely willing to hear different perspectives, hearing that our idea isn't great and we should look at things differently, whatever. We are not tied to any one direction or idea at the moment besides the idea of financial freedom as quickly as possible. 

Hi everyone,

Thanks to the help from everyone who has interacted with me on my posts I have made so far, my wife and I are about to realize a solid return on our modified house hack in LA. We bought a triplex two years ago for $658,000 ($35,000 down out of pocket). We borrowed about $50,000 to upgrade 2.5 of the 3 units, lived in it for 2 years and made more updates. We are about to close for $930,000 and once we have settled everything including taxes, we should have about $205,000 in cash. We are planning on taking this $ and allocating some to a new primary residence (her mom lives with us and we all need our own space), some for a renovation budget (all of the houses in the LA area in our budget will require some amount of updates), and some for investment purposes. At the moment we are thinking $100,000, $50,000, $50,000 as the split, so I am curious as to what the more experienced real estate investors here would do with $50,000? Our immediate goal is to gain as much cashflow as possible to offset our upcoming primary mortgage, thereby allowing us to save our w2 job salaries and continue to invest in more real estate. I know that if 10 people decide to respond to this I will probably get 10 different answers and that there's no 1 solution that works for everyone, but I am trying to gather as much information and perspective as possible to see if our ideas we are currently throwing around are on the right track. I am definitely still somewhat new and always trying to learn and talk with people who are more experienced than me so I can learn and grow. Thank you to anyone who sees this and replies, and have a great day!

Hi everyone! I am looking at potentially investing internationally, somewhere warm like Mexico, Spain, central America, etc. I am struggling to find reliable websites that have up to date, current listings. I am interested in both land purchases and actual houses/flats/etc., trying to explore what our next step is going to be. Was hoping someone could provide some recommendations for how to go about doing the proper research outside of the US. Thanks and have a great day!

Just wanted to thank everyone for their replies, getting a bunch of different perspectives, thoughts, ideas, etc. is going to be very helpful. I am the one between the 2 of us that is all in on the benefits of real estate to create our wealth we want, whereas she's just gone along with it because I want to do it. She has no interest in continuing to house hack up, or move a bunch more times, so that's why we need to get creative with our next step and find some sort of investment combined with 1 final move into a long term situation with no more moving around for a while. I have to work with her and her comfort levels, so that's the whole reason I am trying to figure out some way to maneuver with all of this. As some have said, we have some time to sort it out but it's good to get a few ideas in our head now so we can keep throwing around ideas to make our next move the right one. 

Hello Bigger Pockets community! This is a longer post, but I am hoping to get some advice and potentially talk with someone farther along in the real estate game than us about what our next step should be. A little back story to set up the question: My fiancée and I purchased a triplex in the LA area last summer for $658,000, in a not amazing part of the city but it seems to be getting better. We live in 1 unit and rent the other 2 out to offset our mortgage, so a modified house hack situation. We have been doing renovations and repairs to the property throughout the last year, and combined with the real estate market exploding think it should be worth $900,000+ at the moment, based on seeing what other 3 unit properties have been listed for recently. We have talked with our tax people and they suggest we keep it for one more year to realize the tax benefits. We are trying to figure out our next step once we end up selling next year now, so we have a plan to execute. Our top goal is to purchase a long term, potential forever home so we can stop moving around every few years. The forever home will need to either be a duplex, have an ADU, or some other separate space for her mom to live in, as she currently lives with us but we will need to have separate spaces when we get married. We make a combined roughly $175,000 and have very little debt (no student loan debt for either, just car and mortgage). However, if we want to buy in the right area in LA we will most likely either be buying $900,000-$1,000,000 or something cheaper but a fixer. According to a few calculators online, we would need to have more income besides our jobs to qualify for $900,000+, at least $220,000. Our tentative plan is as follows:

1. Sell this property for a hopefully $200,000+ profit next August, 2022

2. Temporarily move back into her SF house that her and her mom own

3. Take half of the profit we make from the sale and invest in an income property to provide cash flow to supplement our salaries for our next purchase

4. Purchase forever home with remaining $

Our biggest question that we would love advice, thoughts, suggestions, ideas, etc. is: What would be our best bet investment to add cashflow to our job income so we can qualify for the right price we are looking for on our forever home? We have been exploring ideas for rental properties in the midwest/south/southeast part of the US where property is much more reasonable than here in LA, we have been thinking about trying to find vacation rental properties in Mexico now that things are opening back up, and trying to think of anything else that might provide us with additional cash flow. Not sure if it's relevant information, but I do plan on building the real estate portfolio after we move into our forever home as well. Sorry for the long post and thank you to anyone who makes it through this entire thing and has any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or anything else that can help us with our next step. I am just trying to pick the brain of anyone who has more experience and ideas so that we have a plan for next year. Hope everyone has a great day!

Hello all, 

Thanks to the BP site and community, my gf and I were able to start our real estate ventures this summer by purchasing a triplex in LA with an FHA loan. It was in bad shape so we took a private loan from my parents to renovate 2/3 units, and have been doing work on the property ourselves despite not being licensed (I have done exterior painting, drywall repair, light fixture replacement, small things like that). We are also refinancing already to take advantage of even lower rates. In addition, she owns a single family residence that she has rented out as well. I know that we will both need to find a tax professional that specializes in real estate to help maximize our tax benefits, but I am not sure where to even start to find someone who knows how everything works in southern CA. I have searched a bit on google, and on here, but was hoping someone could help me cut through all the information to point me in the right direction. I haven't been steered wrong yet and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to help us out! Happy Holidays!

Hello! My GF & I are first time landlords after purchasing our first triplex in LA. She owns her home we are currently in in Long beach as well. We are going to be moving into 1 unit of the triplex & renting out the other empty one, plus her long beach house. We have been talking applicants according to guidelines set from "The House Hacking Strategy" but I had a question about what we can ask in follow up questions to ensure we aren't doing anything wrong. An applicant meets our income requirements & our 600+ credit score but has a bunch of missed payments in the credit history, mostly on car payments. Can we ask for an explanation of this or is that overstepping our ability to inquire on things? Also, is this something we can reject the application over despite the other requirements being met? Thanks for any advice/insight/info, we are trying to make the best decisions but all of our current applicants have 1-2 question marks while meeting most requirements we have. 

Hello! My gf, friend, and I are going through the process of starting a modified house hack on a 4 unit building in LA. We have been preapproved for the right amount of $ and we are looking at finalizing our agent and placing offers. It's modified because we will be living in 3 of the 4 units, so the 4th unit will just be offsetting some of our mortgage and the 3 of us will be covering the rest. Because of us occupying 3 of the 4 units for the first 2 years, do we need to take into account normal metrics for evaluating properties (such as cap rate) or as long as all the costs fit within the budget we have set for ourselves is it fine? Thanks for your thoughts!

Thank you for the reply, I should have included more info in the original post. We all have excellent credit (over 750-800+), collectively we make in the $225,000-ish range, my roommate and I both have $0 debt, and she only has her mortgage and a small car payment. It feels like on the surface we are in decent standing financially, we are just trying to familiarize ourselves with as much information as possible to make the right decision that gives us the best financial option. The 203k loan seems like an option solely because in our price point in the LA/Long Beach market it seems like we won't be finding a turn-key multi-unit building, it feels like we are going to need to do something to a building just based off our initial searches.