All Forum Posts by: Grant Hibbert

Welcome, Nick! I have a dream of living in HI with the family someday. Maybe I'll pick up one of your rehabs ;)

I'm looking to move into a new home in which I can rent out the basement - but trying to decide what to do with my current home. My current home has appreciated a bit since I bought it 3 years ago and other houses in the neighborhood are selling quickly at full price. Looking for advice on what to do:

Option 1 - Sell 

If I sell, it would make ~$40-60k. I'd use that money to pay off car loans and put a down payment on another home. My plan is to buy a bigger home and rent out the basement. I'd use whatever is leftover to fix the new home. The money "saved" on no more car payments and a reduced mortgage payment I'd put toward a downpayment for another rental property. I would not need to pull from savings to execute this plan. 

Option 2 - Rent 

If I hold and rent my current house, it would cashflow about $100/month. 

$1,300 rent (I know what rent rates are in my neighborhood)

- $900 mortgage 

= $400 cashflow

- $130 for property management (10% of rent)

- $170 for CapEx account (to make math easy)

= $100 extra cash flow

I would use what I have in saving for a minimum down payment on a home in which I could rent out the basement. This would deplete my current savings until the cashflow from rental and "savings" from reduced mortgage payment regenerated savings account (would still have 3-6 months emergency cash of course). I'd still have car loans but would pay those off at a faster rate with rental cash flow and reduced mortgage payment from renting out basement. 

What would you suggest I do? Any advice is appreciated! 

Thanks for all the welcome messages and great advice! @Zack Adams and @Kammon Hiatt let's do lunch sometime. I'll coordinate with you in a separate message on a time in the next few weeks. 

Hi everyone,

Grant here born, raised, and living in Utah. I have no background in real estate but am interested in learning and investing. I have a full-time job that I enjoy at a tech company and plan to continue working for the next few years. While working, I will connect with and learn from successful mentors and invest part-time. 

I'm still reading and trying to outline an investment strategy, but I'm anxious to get started. 

My goals (though somewhat ignorant at this point) are as follows:

1. Short Term: Buy a single-family home and convert it to student housing by end of 2016. Continue to learn and hone in on a specific investment strategy that I feel comfortable with. 
2. Mid Term: Do 10+ deals using my focused strategy (e.g. buy and hold single- multi-family homes, flip single-family homes, wholesale, etc.) over the next 1-5 years and generate cash flow. 
3. Long Term: Buy vacation rentals to facilitate family travel. First one in St. George by 2020, then go from there to find vacation destinations that my wife and I are interested in and find good properties nearby. We love to travel but don't get to do it much.

I'm excited to learn from the many who have been successful at real estate investing and hope to achieve similar success. 

-G