All Forum Posts by: Edward Dean

Heather and Brandon Turner's "The Book on Managing Rental Properties" is good for questions like this. Nolo also has some good books for covering the basic questions you'll run into as a newer landlord.

Best of luck!

If you have multiple scholarship options, maybe see if you can use them to bid the other ones up. In other words, pick the school you like the most and go talk to their scholarship department. Let them know you would like to go to their school but you have other more appealing offers so they need to come up. If they do not, or even if they do come up but not to a full ride level, rinse and repeat with your other school options. The goal would be to get one of these schools to offer as close to a free ride as possible. If college is free, what is the harm in going? You can still do your house hack idea and get your basic courses out of the way. You can even try to pick some classes that would help you in analyzing future real estate deals or that will help you think creatively (real estate has a lot of opportunity for those who can think outside of the box). 

Best of luck!

If you are in an area prone to rodents, have a pest company come out to plug any holes or install wire mesh. You'd be surprised where they can get in. Also, put vent caps (the wire mess type that still let air through) on your laundry exhaust vent at the exterior of the home if it is low down to the ground (but make sure you don't completely block the air flow or clog the line). 

Have trees or large shrubs removed if they are near the house or touching the house. The roots can get into your pipes, potentially cause foundation issues over time, branches brushing against the roof can degrade your roof over time, etc.

Install rubber stoppers wherever doors might hit other surfaces. They even make clear little ones for cabinets and the like. 

Flooring last, especially if you are putting up new baseboards with the new flooring. Much easier/faster paint job for yourself not having to worry as much about the floors and boards when painting the walls. 

Look into the classic house hack strategy. That is where a lot people get their footing with real estate investing. If the area you live in is expensive this becomes all the more powerful. Try to find something that either has extra units (duplex, triplex, etc.) where the added income from renters can help you qualify for the higher purchase price while offsetting your carrying costs, or find a larger fixer where you can get in there, fix it up to add value while also having the space to rent parts of it out, or if the layout makes sense and your area allows for it, split it into two units. If you can't find one in your budget, either start looking further out or get creative in how you are finding properties. If qualifying for a loan is your main hurdle, start talking with lenders now too to see if there are areas in your budget you can cut, like credit card debt, car payments, etc., or other things you can do that can boost your DTI.

Best of luck!

Another type of house hacking would be if you have a multi-unit property, whether that is a duplex, triplex, etc., or a home that has a granny flat on it where you can rent one of the units out while also living in one of the other units. You can also house hack with a home you rent (as long as your lease allows subletting and/or roommates), it does not have to be a property you own. The idea is just to cut down your costs by getting a tenant or roommate in whatever extra space you have available to you.

For the transaction itself, speak with lenders and real estate agents in your area to get a handle on what is standard for your locality. Most lenders will require things like an origination fee, you may want to buy points, etc., and these can vary quite a lot so talk with a few. For your other closing costs, a good real estate agent should be able to give a decent ballpark or they can point you towards an escrow officer, title officer, etc. who can.

For the renovation, you can also start shopping around at the different vendors you plan on using for the areas you are looking to flip. See what the flooring you like is going for, the cabinets, talk to contractors at meet ups, etc. J. Scott's "The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs" is a good place to start to get a handle on what actually can go into a home flip and how are things priced (the actual price estimates may be a little dated now and may not account for higher cost of living area pricing but it's still worth reading to see how things are priced, ie, is it by linear foot, square foot, etc).

And of course, check the forums here and go to meet ups to talk with other investors about this too!

Best of luck!

This sounds like it will depend at least a little bit on what your desired purchase price is on the new primary home. The higher the purchase price on the primary, the more it will likely make sense to do a refi on the rental, especially if you can pull the equity out and still have it cash flow at least a little at the new, higher interest rate. I like the nerd wallet mortgage calculator and there are other good ones out there, but I would use them to play with the numbers a bit to see what works best as a whole. It doesn't make sense to me to keep the rental as is just because it is $1200 a month in positive cash flow if this would cause you to spend more than the $1200 each month because you now have PMI and higher carrying costs on the primary than if you had more to put down. If your primary purchase is $1 million + for instance, the difference between putting 20, 10, 5, and 3.5% down can make for some huge swings in your monthly carrying costs. Best to try and look at the whole picture and go from there.

Best of luck!

It's hard to know without more information what your metrics are for a "deal" but you may need to get more creative. Lots of areas have properties that won't cash flow if you do a standard down payment and just look at the list price. But if you can find a way to value add, like finding a fixer you can BRRRR or something you can add bedrooms or bathrooms to, or even add another unit to (like converting a garage or splitting a larger home), then some of the properties that don't make sense based on what they are right now can start looking a lot more attractive if you have a good plan to get to a higher ARV or boost the rental potential. If you can't find a good deal, try to make a good deal!

Best of luck!

You can also check out sites like NOLO (who also have good books for renting and managing from the legal side of things). Your real estate agent should have access to some resources as well. Here in California there are standard lease forms that the California Association of Realtors puts out and I imagine other states would have similar arrangements. Zillow also has standard leases for each state they operate in. You can also find a good attorney to help you fine tune your lease if you wish.

Best of luck with it!