All Forum Posts by: Dan Guenther

Hey @Oscar Linares, welcome to the community! 

Take some time to browse the forums, check out the "Learn" tab up top for guides on getting started, and connect with as many investors as you can. I'm sure there are plenty of local investor's Meetups in the LA county area. This is going to be the best way to narrow down your goals. 

Happy to help with any questions you might have at this point in your journey! 

Hey @Sophia Villebro welcome to the community! I'm also a MN native but haven't lived there in years 

This is a bit cliche but my biggest advice would be to focus on house hacking. On the agent side, this will be an easy transition into investing as you'll be working with a lot of single-family home transactions just like you would for non-investor clients. Learn the basics of running numbers and how to help people get systems set up for a successful house hack and you'll be off to the races! 

Reach out if you want to chat more about different options! 

Hey @Bart Van Leijsen welcome to the community! 

It's great to hear that you are already working in a real estate focused industry. That should help give you a good boost when it comes time to ramp up in the investing world.  

Take advantage of your 2-year timeline by connecting with other investors out here in Colorado, learn the market virtually through these forums and sites like Refin/Realtor, and get to know the pros and cons of investing in Denver.

Being a high-price point city, we use a lot of creative strategies to find good investments, especially for house hackers. In the greater Denver metro, you'll find a lot of single-family homes that were (or could be) easily split into two units. This is one way to get the duplex setup without the hefty price tag that most Denver area duplexes come with. 

Good luck on your journey and keep up with the education side until you are ready to take action! 

Hey @Talya Reynolds and welcome to the forums! There are a lot of different approaches to calculating a "good" investment. Since you will be house hacking, there are a separate set of factors coming into play that will drive this decision. A bad deal for a traditional investor could actually be a great deal for a new investor that is house hacking. Here are a few tips:

1) Rent savings - How much per year will you save on paying down someone else's loan vs paying down your own? Even if you aren't cash-flowing in year one, this does not necessarily mean it's a bad deal. 

2) Use sites like Zillow and FB Marketplace to figure out what people in your area are paying for rent and compare those places to your target property. This should give you a good idea of what to expect in year one and also after you move out. Think long-term when looking at numbers.

3) Use the BP Calculator on this site to run the numbers. Will the rent cover a good amount of your mortgage while living there? What will the numbers look like when you can rent out both units? 

4) Connect with investor-friendly realtors/lenders. They will have resources, tools, and insight for you that are specific to your market. 

I could write a book but for the sake of time, my biggest recommendation is to connect with other investors close to you! 

Hey @Gary Randle - Welcome to the community! I'm always looking to build my network, especially in different states. I'm based in the Denver market but I keep an open mind on out-of-state opportunities. Let's connect! 

@Tanim J B. - I've made the mistake of being the nice guy one too many times. Make sure to keep your business hat on when making decisions like this. I'm sure this tenant is probably a good person but this is definitely a red flag. Keep to the same screening criteria for every tenant regardless. This will save you A LOT of headaches down the road. It's better to eat the vacancy costs of waiting for the perfect tenant than to have to deal with 3 months worth (or however long of a lease you plan on) of potential issues with said tenant and the potential for ruining a good living situation with your other tenants. 

@Seth Michael Carp - I love the hustle Seth! You'll hear this over and over but I wish I started that young. I spent 5 years living in Portland and always had a good time down in Eugene! 

For your first house hack, one factor that a lot of people overlook is lowering or fully eliminating the current rent that you would be paying while renting. Even if you end up cashflow negative out of the gate you are still building equity, paying down your own loan (not someone else's), gaining investing experience, hopefully appreciation, and all of the tax benefits that come with it! 

If you haven't already, look into some Meetups around campus and see if you can connect with other investors. Let me know if you want to talk a bit more about some potential options there in Eugene, happy to help out! 

@Foster Zlab - Welcome to BP and congrats on the purchase, big moves! 

I've been renting by the room now for 2 years and definitely know how overwhelming it can feel when you're first starting out. It's going to be a trial and error but here are some tips to get going. 

1) Yes there should always be a lease in place. There are specific leases out there that are tailored toward renting individual rooms. Make sure to work with a lawyer to cover all local laws in your area. If you are going to short-term rent the room on Airbnb then this looks different. I would not recommend collecting rent on the side not only for legal reasons. In the case that something does happen and then you'll have a tough time making a case as the rent was not reported or tracked in any way. Also, you'll want to start reporting and collecting rent for tax benefits and for future leverage as an investor going forward. 

2) You'd collect rent just like you would for a normal rental. Either using your own accounting (all business funds go into a separate account from personal funds) or a rent collection software. Then when it comes tax time you'll have the benefits of a portion of your house being used for business purposes. Find a good CPA to talk more about this ASAP. 

3) I'm not sure about Lincoln, but here in Denver, we have multiple FB groups specifically for rooms for rent. You can also use websites like Roomies.com or SpareRoom.com. 

Hope this helps and feel free to reach out if you need any specifics! 

@Andrew Swart welcome to the community! You are in the right place to move from the unknown to a successful real estate investor in no time. Being in Denver you have endless resources not only on this site but also on the ground. There are A LOT of REIA Meetups in Denver and the surrounding areas. Take advantage of these as it's in my opinion the best way to get around others who are already in the mix with most Meetups being very low-pressure environments!

@Jesse Harris

Awesome Jesse! I’ll send you the link to the meetup.