All Forum Posts by: Daniel Criddle

@Bobby Dirkmaat Congrats on finishing up at BYU and taking the leap to do your own thing. I'm in Vineyard not too far from you and finished up the FT MBA at BYU in 2018. In the process of working on a house-hack that I'll move into in a few months. Thought about renting current home but planning to sell now instead. Interested in BRRRR, and partnering on flips. Looking to grow my network around here as well. Need to get to a local meetup soon, but would be curious to hear what more of what you're looking to target, so PM if interested in chatting more.

Thank you for the great feedback Casey and Cherie, really appreciate the replies. 

@Casey Christensen- I should clarify. I could currently rent my basement while living there, but would need to invest 15k to do so (would be worth it) however, the bigger issue is we already make full use of the basement at this point and would have a hard time giving it up to rent. If I were to move out, I would love to rent it as a duplex, but the city won't allow it if an owner isn't living there. It's possible that changes, referencing Cherie's point above about affordable housing, it's limited in the area. Could always make the changes later on if they do change the code. Plan to transfer to an LLC if I do move out and rent it. I could loophole with that, have a nephew begging me to let him rent it, so could put him as a .1% owner or whatever in the LLC, and then rent top and bottom separately. But not the most scalable solution : ) once he's out in 2 years I only have so many family members I could repeat that with. haha So thinking it's likely better to just rent the whole thing, and if something were to change, finish the walkout and kitchen expansion at that time. The new bigger house we would hack, and we'd essentially keep our current comfort/lifestyle while covering a good portion of our mortgage with renters.

@Cherie Orellana Really awesome insight that on the sub-lease or addendum to single lease. Hadn't even considered that, certainly becomes more realistic to rent ~2500-3000 sq ft on it's own separate from the basement apartment if I can get the right tenant situation. Or in a sub-lease setup, a flexible/hungry tenant I imagine? I think you're right on what the builder will and won't do. I wonder if I could give them a deposit to hold and pause contract until I finish the course and take the test. This gives me motivation to cram at any rate. I haven't looked at wholesalers at all, just did a little research after reading your comment. Do you have any that you'd recommend around here (not sure if I'm allowed to ask this?)? The transactional financing is also new to me. Knew about hard money/private, but just did a little research. This type of financing and considering wholesalers would require me to take a step back and do some more research to build up my confidence in the model, but could be the right way to start. 

Hey Fellow BP Investors,

Just getting to a place where I'm looking to start investing in real estate, and could just use some opinions. Looking primarily at Utah/Salt Lake Counties. Sitting on a little cash + a HELOC of $115K. The BRRRR strategy makes a ton of sense, and would love to get going with it, but having a tough time seeing the deals in this market. One of the fastest growing markets for real estate/appreciation in the country, and there are plenty of flippers/investors as well.

Having said that, I'm confident there are deals out there to be had if you have the right eyes and resources. Do a decent amount of financial modeling/analysis for work, so savvy enough there. Planning to start the 120 hour course (likely Stringham) to get my RE license as well. I have a few contractors in my network I'd trust - would need to find a 1 or 2 more for BRRRR I think. Also will do some of the work- we handled subbing out the finish of our basement, painted it and did IKEA kitchenette ourselves with sink, cabinets. Willing to learn/do more if it makes sense.

Ok, thanks for indulging me with that background. Here's where I'm at. For my first investment, debating staying at this house, looking for ideal BRRRR property, and continuing that pattern, or a quasi-house hacking approach. Our house is ~3300 square feet, finished basement that we aren't renting. We (family of 5) love it, originally had no plans to move, and could stay here a while. Built in 2018, not a perfect rental, but I think it would rent decently in this market, and provide a little cash flow each month. Not sure how much extra the ~1100 sq ft basement would get in rent compared to just renting the main/top floor (4 br, 2.5 bath), but difficult to rent them separately here. So I've debated looking for a new deal to pop up, checking online every day, hoping to find an ideal BRRRR candidate or buying another home nearby and renting this one. It's basically a bigger version of our home that would allow us to keep the same lifestyle (excercise, rec room, guest room, wife's work room) + finish an ~1100 sq ft 2 BR, 1 bath full apartment in the basement that would likely rent for ~$1300, based on market.

So I'd cover costs, perhaps lightly cashflow this home that's in great shape a few hundred bucks max (currently 20 yr mortgage), and then cover ~40-50% of my mortgage with 5% down on the new home (builder would finish the basement). It'd be my 2nd home with this builder, and I've sent them referrals as well, so they're including a good amount of upgrades etc beyond their normal stuff, and it's a good deal relative to this crazy market. I'd put a deposit down immediately, and close in May/June on the new home. I think my hesitation with the house-hack option is, it isn't something I could repeat, bc renting a larger home like that would be tough, and unless code changes, I couldn't rent the basement separately whenever we were to move. 

This is long, if you made it to this point, thanks. After re-reading this, I feel like a pompous, spoiled brat, please don't judge. We did time in old apartments and basements for many years as well :) Any commentary, advice, feedback is welcome in regards to these options, and the general investment environment in the area if you have experience. Thanks, Daniel