All Forum Posts by: Damon Bodine

What is house hacking? “House Hacking is a strategy that involves renting out portions of your primary residence to generate income that is used to offset the cost of your mortgage and other expenses associated with owning a home. When done correctly, it allows people to live in expensive areas completely for free, or even generate positive income through home ownership”-David Greene

Savvy homeowners have been using this approach for decades to offset or in some cases completely cover their living expenses.

Join us for our the August edition of House Hackers Happy Hour. Here you will meet other house hackers and industry experts who are taking advantage of this strategy to dramatically improve their savings and investing goals.

Damon Bodine Real Estate Agent is your host. Damon has worked in the New York City since 2014 and is also an active homeowner and former mortgage broker. He has worked all over the 5 boroughs helping buyers achieve the dream of home ownership.

Date - Wednesday, September 11th, 2024
Time - 6:00PM
Location - Online -RSVP on eventbrite for Zoom Link
Ticket Link -

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nyc-house-hackers-happy-hour-ti...

Cost- Free

Any questions feel free to reach out to Damon. If you think anyone could benefit from this event please feel free to share with them. Open to everyone!

Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, and beyond.

Hey @Mohammed Rahman I'm curious what are you seeing in your searches and business lately? .  I've actually had some success recently with 2 buyers that purchased with 5% down  and we got a full seller concession for closing costs.   

Hey @Elliot Juarez 

Welcome to BP .   

If you're at a point where you're able to move yourself and house hack it could be viable. If you're a first time home buyer ideally you'd want to take advantage of some of the FTHB community bank mortgages. These can at times offer lower than average 30 year fixed rates, eliminated PMI requirement, lower down payment requirements, and closing cost credits. They're designed for owner occupants but could be something in which you occupied for a duration of time and then converted to a pure investment later.

A non owner occupied pure investment could be tough here because of the down payment requirements for  investment property.   

Yea it can be difficult right now with the rate environment.   To be honest with you even in the 3% rate environment 3-4 Fam was tough because of the way self sufficiency is calculated and NYC/NJ price points.    

2 Family will certainly open up a lot more options. You may want to opt for a different loan product other than FHA. Mainly because of the higher monthly and upfront PMI payment with FHA. i.e. standard conventional loan.

Alternatively community bank loans could be a great option for a first time home buyer. These often have no PMI, reduced origination fees, lower than average 30 year fixed rate, and occasionally some closing cost credits. These loans are census tract based meaning they won't be available everywhere but will depend if the address itself meets the area median income requirements. Can also find some 3-4 family options within these products albeit with higher down payment requirements. One thing thats important to know is that there is rarely one lender who can do 'everything'. So you'l definitely want to talk with a few people in this process. (direct lenders, brokers, credit unions etc) Happy to chat further and in deeper detail on strategy for this.

Awesome on the meetup!  

Hey Greg,

Welcome. Great list here.  You seem very well organized.  

One piece of advice I would recommend if you want to go FHA is getting to understand the self sufficiency test for 3 and 4 unit buildings. https://www.newcastle.loans/mortgage-guide/fha-self-sufficie... 

It can be tough to find deals that pass self sufficiency in NYC.  That said there are some workaround and alternative loan programs that can potentially work.  

If you're ever up for it I host the  house hacking happy hour meetup once a month.  We go deep on analysis and strategy.   Next meetup is in August and on my page.   

What is house hacking? “House Hacking is a strategy that involves renting out portions of your primary residence to generate income that is used to offset the cost of your mortgage and other expenses associated with owning a home. When done correctly, it allows people to live in expensive areas completely for free, or even generate positive income through home ownership”-David Greene

Savvy homeowners have been using this approach for decades to offset or in some cases completely cover their living expenses.

Join us for our the August edition of House Hackers Happy Hour. Here you will meet other house hackers and industry experts who are taking advantage of this strategy to dramatically improve their savings and investing goals.

Damon Bodine  Real Estate Agent is your host. Damon has worked in the New York City since 2014 and is also an active homeowner and former mortgage broker. He has worked all over the 5 boroughs helping buyers achieve the dream of home ownership.

Date - Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Time - 6:00PM
Location - Online -RSVP on eventbrite for Zoom Link
Ticket Link -

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nyc-house-hackers-happy-hour-ti...

Cost- Free

Any questions feel free to reach out to Damon. If you think anyone could benefit from this event please feel free to share with them. Open to everyone!

Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, and beyond.

In many cases the HELOC would make sense because it allows you to hold on to that rate. However hard to speculate without undersanding more about the property, proposed construction, timeline etc. If helpful always happy to run some numbers with you. Sometimes when you lay out all of your goals the strategy becomes more clear.

 Hey Vincent be careful as to where and how they get the hard money loan.   A lot of them have pre payment penalties, significant points, of course interest only etc.     There also may be seasoning requirements based on the loan program they refi into.  Also its hard to get a hard money loan on a personal residence.  

Alternatively there are lenders that will offer convertible bridge loans that convert into 30 year fixed.  Its essentially the same thing but potentially a better pricing structure.   Just take in mind all of these strategies are risky.  

For me it always comes down to their team.  What is the agent doing proactively for them?   Are they getting them in front of off market or pre market opportunities?  Is there lender making calls and available to talk if someone has a question about their offer? .  People have to really put in the extra work for their clients right now in a low inventory environment.  

Hey Jeanette have you tried speaking with lenders about a HELOC? That could be one approach.

What is house hacking? “House Hacking is a strategy that involves renting out portions of your primary residence to generate income that is used to offset the cost of your mortgage and other expenses associated with owning a home. When done correctly, it allows people to live in expensive areas completely for free, or even generate positive income through home ownership”-David Greene

Savvy homeowners have been using this approach for decades to offset or in some cases completely cover their living expenses.

Join us for our the July edition of House Hackers Happy Hour. Here you will meet other house hackers and industry experts who are taking advantage of this strategy to dramatically improve their savings and investing goals.

Damon Bodine Investor Friendly Real Estate Agent is your host. Damon has worked in the New York City since 2014 and is also an active investor and former mortgage broker. He has worked all over the 5 boroughs helping buyers achieve the dream of home ownership.

Date - Wednesday, July 19th, 2023
Time - 6:00PM
Location - Online -RSVP on eventbrite for Zoom Link
Ticket Link - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/n...

Cost- Free

Any questions feel free to reach out to Damon. If you think anyone could benefit from this event please feel free to share with them. Open to everyone!

Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, and beyond.