All Forum Posts by: Grady Gilman

I think that's a very undervalued way of getting into house hacking while also easily forcing appreciation. I've been looking for properties with unfinished basements to do this onto and there's a reasonable amount of properties that could have this work. In your personal strategy are you still renting out the main floor rooms in a house hacking strategy? Are you value adding anything aside from the basement?

Great idea!

Thanks in advance for any input on this novice question of mine!

I am on my very first steps of getting the ball rolling in real estate investing and have read/am reading many of the BP books. I have settled on the house hacking strategy, but regardless of the investment strategy, should I get pre-approved first and then find an agent, or vice versa?

I have a steady W-2 job (unfortunately for now!) and credit score of 750+, so I presume getting pre approved as a first time buyer would not be all that difficult. Many agents can refer you to a lender themselves, so should I get an agent first and use one of their referrals? Would that increase your relationship with the agent by using their referral? 

Lastly, if I get an agent first, can you ask a lender to preform a soft credit check instead of a hard credit check to get a ball park idea of how much you can afford?

Again, thanks for any and all input.

-Grady

Hi Andrew! I have a few questions about your approach to finding houses for house hacking, especially those where you can also force appreciation through improvements.

Firstly, what ratio of bedrooms and bathrooms do you typically look for? Do you prefer houses that already have 3+ bedrooms and 2+ bathrooms, or are you more interested in properties where you can add additional rooms and baths? I'm really curious about your thought process in identifying "hackable" houses that also offer opportunities for value-add improvements.

From what you've shared, it sounds like you're created a hybrid House Hacking/BRRRR strategy. Given that you're already on your fourth house, it seems like this approach has been quite successful for you. I'd love to hear more about how you find these properties and any tips you might have for someone looking to follow a similar path.

Thank you everyone for your insights so far, I appreciate it all. Sounds like I have a tough pill to swallow but I'm glad I found this forum for this exact reason.

Thank you for the insight, appreciate it. The home has a foundation and we plan on restoring the structure to have it classified as a single family residence, and then to lend against it. Sounds like we need to confirm this assumption of it being classified with a lender instead of assuming it will.

I am brand new to real estate, as well to BiggerPockets, and have been learning as much as I can just in the past few weeks. However, I have already found an opportunity I feel I can not pass up, even with as little knowledge and experience I have, and am looking for any and all advice and thoughts on my first move into real estate.

A life long best friend of mine has been offered by a family member for $20,000 to own outright a 3.5 acre lot with a run down mobile home on it. The place is overgrown and currently not liveable but is on a town road and has water/electric/sewer. My friend wants to include me in on this so we can both achieve financial freedom together.

The plan currently is to take out a personal loan together for the $20,000, put in $5,000-10,000 worth of work into the property to make it livable as soon as possible, move into the property ourselves so we don't have to pay rent anymore, and then refinance as soon as possible. Based off previous property taxes payed by the family member, we estimate the property to be worth roughly 100k once livable. Then, with a large amount of equity in the property, we look to get into the BRRR strategy.

What are some things I should consider, look more into? 

Thanks in advance!