All Forum Posts by: Gregory Schwartz

@Theresa Harris is spot on. I've also asked for the current tenant's original application. How much do they make, credit score, rental history? If I'm buying an investment property and the current tenants dont meet my screening criteria I need to know that up front.

I usually assume that the current tenants either weren't screened or don't meet my criteria. Its better to be pleasantly supprised than utterly disappointed 

How do you plan to finance the ADU? Have you analyzed whether it will genuinely add value? From my experience, when I dive into the costs associated with building an ADU—including construction expenses and financing options like hard money loans—it often doesn't make financial sense. The combination of high costs and the after-repair value (ARV) frequently leads me to conclude that buying a new rental property is a better use of capital.

I dont screen but to be fair our properties dont attract parties. If I had a "party house" I'd probably look out for people with at least one review 

Thanks for the kind words! I get the struggle—finding a good multi-unit to house hack can be tough, especially in a competitive market. We ran into similar issues when we moved from our 4plex and ended up house hacking a single-family home. Renting out one room has been awesome, but we also tried a live-in flip, which went way over budget and was a headache. Lesson learned: stick to cosmetic fixes unless you’re ready for the stress of a full reno.

If house hacking isn’t working in your area, maybe look into single-family homes with ADUs or just an extra bedroom with an exterior entrance. Put a lock on the door between the extra bedroom and the main house for security and rent it on Airbnb. We've been doing this for 3 years now and love it!

To be fair… yes, I likely have a screw loose. But after helping many people house hack, I’d still choose house hacking over a live-in flip any day. Both of my house hacks were enjoyable and lowered my cost of living, helping me survive tough financial times.

One of those tough times was caused by a live-in flip that went way over budget. House hacking lowers risk while a live-in flip can be a money pit with endless surprises. For first-time investors, house hacking is the smarter, steadier choice. 

We hired an editor and it has improved my content 10x. The process was simple, we used Upwork and Fiverr to find 3-4 potential editors. Then we sent them each the same raw video and told them our budget, in this case only $50. Based on the quality of the video, their ability to adjust based on our request and overall communication styles we picked 2. One as our primary and the other as the backup. 

Ignore @V.G Jason. House hacking is the best. I'm house hacking right now, and my family isn't sacrificing. Actually, it's the exact opposite. We live in this nice house because I'm covering some of the mortgage expense with the income from the house hack. Guess what? If we move, we'll house hack again. Find a home with an ADU, garage apartment, or a spare room that can be Airbnb' ed.

Most importantly please be sure to keep money in reserve. Have both a personal and REI emergency fund because life happens.

As someone who focuses more on equity than cashflow, I do include capital expenses in my initial analysis. So the property may break even or even "lose" $100-200 each month for the first year or so but that number includes the capital I'm putting aside each month for the eventual water heater, roof, or vacancy. 

That being said there are those that are willing to accept buying in an appreciating area where the rent only covers the mortgage (PITI). In these cases, maintenance and capex come out of the investor's pocket funded by their day jobs. If your a high income earner living below your means then this isn't a horrible strategy.

@Nick S. it sounds like this property isn't close enough for you to self-manage. If that's the case I would strongly suggest building your team before pulling the trigger on an Airbnb. STR even more than LTR are management intensive and the host can make or break the ROI.

@Javier Molina , dude, you're military so you know this.  When has a "mildly complex" idea ever been anything besides a cluster? When I was active, the O-4 Good Idea Fairies always tried to re-invent how we did business, and 95% of the time, they overcomplicated a simple process making our lives way harder. We always did better sticking to the K.I.S.S. method

Real estate has enough complexities and none of us are rich enough to need super-secret anonymity.