All Forum Posts by: David Clark

Great points, Kenneth, thank you! 

Thanks for your response, Kenneth. Unfortunately, we would most likely take a huge pay cut as a result. I'd like to add a side hustle to the mix if we were to do that. 

Great to know! We'll continue to look into this and also potentially reach out to you.

Our rent is in an MFTE unit. The rent we pay is tied to our income. So, if our income goes up above the limit for this unit, we have to find somewhere else. Not exactly a great situation, but at least we can afford it!

I agree. FWIW, we don't have any subscriptions except $2.99/mo for iCloud for our documents, and Amazon Prime. We budget for everything so that it's broken down into months. For instance, our Chase Sapphire annual fee is budgeted $7.92/mo, etc. We have the cheapest internet, we have three phone lines for $50/mo, etc.

Definitely getting more creative with house hacking ideas (see my previous comment).

Thanks!

Hi everyone! Thanks for the great comments.

We definitely want to house-hack. Unfortunately, we still feel that's so far out of reach. Even with the WSHFC assistance, let's say we've got a total of $50,000 down, we'd have to find a house under $400,000 to get it lower than our rent. We're residents in Seattle's MFTE program, so rent is income-based. That said, if you make over the highest tier that the property you live at goes up to, then you're either on the street or paying market rent. FWIW, our unit's market rent is $4,200... So, if we could get into a house and not worry about crossing that ceiling, that'd be great.

I failed to mention that we declared bankruptcy in February of 2015. Mostly to help us get out of our first home that we purchased, as it was falling apart, I didn't have time to work on it despite having the knowledge, due to commuting from Tacoma (home) to Renton (work) at the time. Then we totaled our car, and despite having email evidence that I authorized adding comprehensive coverage to the car because we kept having to dip into our EF for the house (which was riddled with issues - long story), the vehicle was not covered. We felt like we did all the right things - got inspectors, knew how to do the work ourselves, insured our car when our EF dipped too low, etc. - and we just go burned so hard. So we took a bankruptcy. Anyways... I think we took advantage of the WSHFC assistance at that time, and I think it's only for first time home-buyers. Correct me if I'm wrong - maybe I'm just thinking about the tax credit. @Michael Haas, I'm definitely interested in learning more, especially as it seems you have a kid. We wouldn't want to move from house-to-house while our kiddo is in school.

We're also looking into Loftium, which is a company here that manages properties for home-owners, and offer cheaper rent to tenants in exchange for hosting Air BnB's in that home as well. Everything is taken care of, you just do the in-person hosting, and you get some kickbacks for each booking. Definitely a less significant form of house-hacking.

We also are acquaintances with another couple who just purchased a home and are renovating in order to house-hack. Their plan is to offer units at below-market rates to help combat the housing crisis happening, which is something I actually thought about several months ago, so we're going to chat with them soon, offer our help on the home, maybe ask to rent it out, and chat about their goals with their housing venture.

I also listened to a podcast episode today about side hustles. I've had an idea for a product for the longest time but always thought that it'd be super difficult to do. In the episode, they mentioned how simple it can be to get production started if there's a similar product out there, and you just explain your idea to a supplier of that similar product, which is typically found on Alibaba. So I may explore that as well.

Hello, all! Super newb here. I've always been interested in real estate, but have always felt it was something you had to have money to make money in. I know that's mostly true, but let me get into who I am a bit.

I'm 31, living in a HCOL area making a LCOL income. I tried to make more by learning software development, but ended up wasting $10,000 on something I a) didn't have the passion to do, b) didn't have the right brain for (spare me the Anyone Can Do It! talk about software engineering haha). I'm married, and we've got an awesome eight year-old who loves to dance and act. We currently have the capacity to save $18,000/yr, despite our combined income only being the median individual income in Seattle. We're quite frugal, but we're not yet hitting that $18,000/yr like we want to.

I listen to Coach Carson, ChooseFI, and today heard David Greene on the How to Money podcast. I haven't read any of their books yet, but I totally want to. What's been holding me back is that idea that I need money to invest in real estate and a) how am I ever going to have enough to invest in RE?!, b) our area is WAY too expensive to do this in, even if we made 2x what we make now, and c) I didn't get started in my 20's like all these other people did, so I should just focus on trying to retire at 70...

But that's not what we WANT. We want to, within the next 10-15 years, be able to travel (not extravagantly), and just not be tied to a W-2 anymore... I want this to be possible. Are we too late? If not, where should we start? I know the first step is to really reign in and maximize that savings, and beyond that would be increasing our income, but that's insanely difficult to do in this city and in our industry. So, what comes next?

Thanks so much!

P.S. Does there happen to be a book-sharing program for members? Other communities do things like this, where they mail the item(s) to the next person on the list, and whenever that person is done with it, they send it to the next.