All Forum Posts by: Hunter Gibson

@Hunter Gibson  house hacking is arguably the best way to get started in real estate investing--it's often the best way to get your foot in the door on owning a property, and you'll learn a lot of valuable lessons about how to buy a property, how to manage a property, how to be a landlord, etc....plus, it's a relatively less risky and simpler technique than BRRRRing, flipping, or any of the other RE investment techniques, which makes it ideal for a new investor learning the ropes.

Although it's pricey, neighborhoods inside the SLC interstate "beltway" (Sugarhouse, Liberty Wells, 9th & 9th, the Aves, anything near the U) tend to be the easiest to find tenants for--especially tenants for a house hack. In a house hack, your tenants will likely be college students/ grad students / young professionals--single people mostly under the age of 35. These people primarily want to live in the neighborhoods I just mentioned, but relatively few of them will want to live in outlying areas like West Valley...I'm not saying it's impossible to house hack in the outlying neighborhoods, just that it's more difficult to find high quality house hack tenants in those areas.  Another advantage of owning property inside the SLC beltway is that those are the properties that will probably appreciate the most, and those are the properties that will probably be the most resistant to a market downturn...EVERYONE wants to live in those neighborhoods, and they aren't building hardly any more single family homes in those neighborhoods, so it's a fairly straightforward supply vs. demand issue.  

On the downside, those central neighborhoods I just mentioned are the oldest neighborhoods in the city--which means the buildings are the oldest, which means that you need to understand and keep an eye out for old house issues that could cause you big bucks in the future (structural issues, lead paint, asbestos, galvanized steel plumbing, outdated electrical HVAC / electrical systems, years of un-permitted and shoddy "repair" jobs covering up other issues, etc.).  Most of the houses in those neighborhoods are early 1900s unreinforced masonry, and it's fairly common to find significant structural issues that would cost a fortune to repair (not to mention, these are the properties that will suffer the most damage when the big earthquake happens--which is a matter of "when", not "if"). Find yourself an agent and an inspector who both have extensive experience with old properties, and who know how to spot the myriad of issues that old properties can have. If you can, pay a contractor with old house experience to walk the property with you...the more experienced people you can get looking at the property, the less likely you'll miss a major issue that ends up costing you $$$ down the road.

Another issue with the older houses is that they often have less square footage, and/or weird floorplans...however, the weird floorplans can sometimes work to your advantage if you can learn to spot easy potential improvements that would enable you to have an extra tenant or increase rent. For instance, sometimes an un-used dining room can be easily converted into an extra bedroom (extra tenant), or a-not-very-useful space can be converted into a bathroom (extra rent)...sometimes, a weird floorplan that actually drives away other buyers (thereby making it easier for to buy the house) can be altered to your advantage...you and your agent need to be good at spotting these types of possible improvements that can turn a house that would otherwise be a month-to-month loser into a cashflower.

Good luck out there!

Getting into vacation rentals is not for the faint of heart.

Buying a house to rent out long term is pretty simple. Buy the house, throw a tenant in there on a 12 month lease, and collect a check every month.

With a vacation rental you are getting into the hospitality business. You have constant turnover so you need to deal with frequent cleaning and higher maintenance. Plus you need to ensure your guests are offered all of the creature comforts like cable, internet, toilet paper, coffee, shampoo, etc.

As others have suggested, spend some time getting educated here on the forums, reading books, and listening to podcasts.

When you're ready to make a move, make sure you are mindful of the competition within the sub-market, and the local regulations around short term rentals.

I had long term rentals, but when I wanted to do the short term houses, I did as suggested above. 
When I found a couple of houses that fit the bill, meaning in an area near me that was also near the beach and (most importantly) were located in an area where STRS were allowed by code, I put them under contact with intention of making them STRs. 

While we made our way through the contract period, I got ready to set up the houses.  I made a file with comments on various topics, such as highly recommended linens, vacuum, mattresses and so forth. I listened non stop to various podcasts on the topic.  I developed a theme and started getting supplies, because I wanted to get set up as soon as possible after closing.

This is an elephant, but you eat it one bite at a time.  Break it down into smaller steps and work on each step.

The best advice is to read this forum. Listen to some podcasts. You can learn everything you need to know right here!