All Forum Posts by: Chris Kim

Hi @Tyler Hodgson, 

It's not necessarily a great deal for your friend because it doesn't achieve the 1% guideline BUT your friend can make it work with roommates as you stated. Having roommates and renting his/her side will significantly reduce your friend's $1800 monthly rent. Your friend should also factor CapEx, Vacancy and maintenance as I imagine he/she will take care of property mgmt.

Hi Bo,

Since you're weighing the option of primary residence vs stocks, I'd consider how much you're paying for rent vs cost of home ownership with FHA loan. Since rates are already low, i would not put 20% down. The DFW market is still strong as @Lucia Rushton mentioned so I would not expect a significant price drop right now

I recently purchased 2 homes in Lubbock for the reasons you’ve stated. There are a few older homes that have the main house and a back unit for way less than $200K if you’re willing to go that route. The multifamily duplexes you’ve described may not cash flow as much at least from the analysis that I’ve done. 

I think it’s a good market that can help with cash flow but it may not be an area where you can expect a lot of appreciation if that’s what you are looking for. 

Happy to discuss more if you’d like 

@Meng Khong tong - are you planning to rent out the house and you rent an apartment? If so, I would recommend house hacking as your first investment where you rent out the spare bedrooms which will significantly reduce your housing expense 

Hi Jeanette,

Welcome to Dallas! My wife and I started our REI journey by buying a SFH with a FHA loan and then rented out the spare bedrooms (House hacking). I do believe house hacking is the way to go with little money since you qualify for FHA but it all depends on your risk tolerance.

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer.

Thank you!

Hi @Ralph Justiz, @Chris Mason and @Kevin Romines

Thank you all for taking the time to comment and guiding me. I did decide to buy points as I believe it's the best route to go since we are not planning to move anytime soon. Thank you!

Hi BP members,

I'm looking for advice whether or not I should buy points from my lender. I have an option to refinance at 3.875% at 0 costs or I could save $189 at 3.125% at $12.5K cost. It would take 5.5 years to make the money back. From what I can tell, most people do not buy points but I'm wondering if it makes sense to buy it in this case. Rates are at historic low and I can't imagine the rate would go below 3%. However, I'm new to investing and would love to get the opinions for those who've done this much longer than me.

Thank you!

@Jeannette Tang - house hacking and renting out single rooms is definitely doable in the Plano/Frisco area. My wife and I actually did it in our first home and still do it today! We actually had good luck finding tenants on craigslist but you do want to make sure you screen them properly. I would also use craigslist as a guide to help you determine rent. $600 per room for all utilities would be easy. 

Older vs newer has its pros and cons. People want newer because it's nicer but it obviously comes at a premium for you to buy. You can definitely house hack in plano/frisco!

@Joseph Firmin Thank you for the suggestion and comment on the pic! I'm definitely still new and I don't know much about HELOC. My understanding is that it carries a higher interest rate so I was thinking this cash out refinance will help start my real estate journey by buying the duplex and then take some time to learn more about multifamily syndication before jumping directly into it.

I really appreciate you taking the time and commenting! You're the first person to comment on my forum. 

@Sam Mao - I started off my REI journey by house-hacking my first home. We rented out the spare bedrooms and that was really eye-opening on the potential of real estate. I would recommend starting with that approach first as it will help reduce your living expenses while also starting to build equity in a home.