All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Roldan

@Frank H Off course not! The two lenders who have made an exceptional job thus far is Joshua Macy from Greater Nevada Mortgage (link) and Jacee from Community Access Lending (CAL; link). CAL was referred to me by my realtor who also is an investor, so they work with investors frequently.

As for the SFH, they are found scattered throughout LV. I have found them through Zillow and Realtor.com. They are just rare, and usually sell quickly.

Edit: added links for your convenience. 

Hi Alenjandro,  Welcome to the world of real estate investment.

I am in your shoes right now! In the same market too! I started my journey about a year ago and have an income slightly lower than yours. Here has been my experience:

Having a down payment, closing costs, and reserves (in my case ~$40k) are bonus points for when applying to lenders! So far I have applied to 8 places. Two have been extremely responsive and are actively trying to work with me to make this happened. My situation is a bit complicated due to my status as a student and seasonal work, so its being a headache. But showing this officers that I am truly committed and have the money ready to go they are trying to find a way to make the numbers work for me.

I started out looking for MFH in Las Vegas, NV. However, after looking at properties for 1 1/2 months, I am slowly moving away from this option. First, these properties tend to be in "high crime" areas. This to me means nothing, since mostly places deemed as such is due to gentrification. However, to others it does mean something which means rents are lower and making your numbers not work as much. Also, if you noticed the market right now, its HOT. There is only 2 weeks worth of inventory  making prices skyrocket! I found 3 MFH properties that fit my numbers and were in nice areas, and guess what? They were under contract in no time. Instead, I managed to work my numbers better with SFHs with casitas (aka mother in law units). These tend to be in better neighborhoods and bringing more cashflow while keeping my numbers down.

So my questions for you are How much do you have saved up until now? Do you have other exit strategies other than househack? Do you know your credit score? Do you know your DTI Ratio? Can you bring in other (friends, co-workers, family, etc) investors to work with you?

Phew I did so many reports! Here are some of them. I encounter many that were not good deals and just a few that were okay. I used a FHA loan since that is what I am aiming for since this will be my first property. If I noticed some properties had potential but didn't quite work with normal/expected numbers I tried to get creative. Here are a few of them. Any feedback welcome.

SFH 4Br

SFH 3Br - Live-in-flip <- Can definitely rent as is, but needs some work.

SFH 3Br - Fixer-Upper <- Didn't realized it was fixer upper until I looked through all the photos. So wrong calculator

SFH 3Br

Duplex 2Br

Originally posted by @Dakota Wilde:

Hi there,

I’m using Tenantcloud to manage all my rentals.
It provides free residential agreement templates that meet legal requirements.

But I never hired a lawyer to go over the documents. 
If you’re concerned about that, reach out to the support team to find out any details.

Thank you! What do you like most of Tenant Cloud? What do you like least of it?

Hello all,
I originally posted this on general landlording (link) but got no responses. So I am reposting here, instead.

I am a new investor (or are in the process of becoming one) and I am planning on using avail.co or tenant cloud for self management apps while I house hack a MFH. There are a few questions I have and was  hoping one of you beautiful people can help me:

- Have you used any of these apps? Do you recommend them?
- Do the leases provided in these apps meet legal requirements? (This is my biggest fear)
- Should I hire a lawyer to go over this leases?
- How do I know if any clauses I add to the lease are legal?

Thank you for all your help.

Hello all,
I am a new investor (or are in the process of becoming on) and I am planning on using avail.co or tenant cloud for self management apps while I house hack a MFH. There are a few questions I have and was hoping one of you beautiful people can help me:

- Have you used any of these apps? Do you recommend them?
- Do the leases provided in these apps meet legal requirements? (This is my biggest fear)
- Should I hire a lawyer to go over this leases?
- How do I know if any clauses I add to the lease are legal?

Thank you for all your help.

That is awesome you are starting so early in your career! You have enough time to look into a property before moving to AZ, I would recommend you look for a property now so you can house hack with your housemates. BP is a great place to get information on investing out of state. Why do I say out of state? Because you don't live there, and you have no idea what the neighborhoods are like! So If you know people out there, ask them to tell you about an area you are looking into buying a house, if they don't know the area and you have no one else to ask, you can do the following:

-Pay that person (if they are family they will probably be happy with a beer!) to go look at the area you are interested

-Talk to a real state agent

-Call a property manager

I would get in touch with a real estate agent ASAP, they will be your best quaterbacks (probably bad reference I don't watch football) they will connect you to all the people you need for getting your property and more! So get on Zillow or realtor.com and start analyzing while you are still in OR. You have been doing homework for 3 years... you can do this!

I wish you the best.

Hi Faris,

Renting by the room is House Hacking! You are just not living in it. You should follow Felipe Mejia (Insta handle felipemejiarei), this is his bread and butter. He has many properties in which he house hacks (rents by the room just like you are planning to). If you follow him you might answer your own questions.

To weigh in a little from my perspective; there are many ways you can approach this. Everything has its pros and cons and you need to weight them yourself. Furnished vs Unfurnished: if you you furnished you could charge extra for each rental home, plus any money spent I am sure you can deduce it as a business expense (please consult a CPA I am not one). However, that means you need to pay money out of pocket for furniture and you run the risk of damage by the tenants.

Utilities, now this is a though one. This is one of the reasons people don't like it, because you are moving two complete strangers (from the tenant perspective) together and there is always a risk for confrontation and issues arising between them. However,  if you create a system that anticipates such issues you can unload some of that burden. I cannot recall the exact episode in the BP podcast, but there was this investor who had explicit instructions (steps if you will) on what the tenants should do prior to contacting him (the owner) with complaints about the roommates. You could do something like this in order to solve this potential future issues. With this in mind, you can off load the utilities to your tenants have them paid for it and be in charge of it. Another option is you taking on the utilities, and just like with the furnished home, you can increase rents and indicate that utilities will be covered in the rent and potentially have this deduced as a business expense as well (again talk to a CPA).

I would suggest you listen to some of the podcast that solely focus on house-hacking and see what strategies have been done that you like and would want to adopt. Also, Look at your local rental and ask the following questions: are rentals furnished? How common is it? Can the rent be increase vs an unfurnished home? How are other condos in your area being advertised? Are utilities included? Which utilities? Are rents higher for those with utilities included? Would I be better off doing short rentals?

I will echo @Nathan Gesner comment. If you cannot afford 3% that should be your priority. Begin with a budget, see where your money is going and find out if that is a reflection of your values. Try paying yourself first, as many say here. By that once you have tracked your budget for a  few months create two new categories 1) your emergency fund, and 2) for your future home (or any other goal at that). See if you can move your money from any of the categories you do not agree with and move them to your those previously mentioned. If you cannot, get a side hustle (like Nathan said).

Always plan for worst case scenario, if you don't get investors you need to be able to pay for that house yourself. That means down payment, closing costs, repairs, etc. See what you can afford by yourself, then look into properties get an idea of what is out there. Then go to a trusted friend, family member, coworker and asked "Hey I am going to buy an investment property here in Gotham city. The numbers look like we can make 100$/month (or 1200$/year) a door and you only need 10,000$. Would you be interested in investing with me?" But allow them to be curious and ask questions, if they say no don't push it. If they say yes, then Hey guess what?! You just invested in a no or low money down house. But showing people that you are able to manage your money (aka you have money on the bank and you are okay if they fire you tomorrow) will give them confidence that you will be able to manage their money.

Hope this helps. 

Its my understanding that when you are house hacking you should not have an LLC. I hope someone corrects me if I am wrong and a professional should weigh on this, but since you will be the primary owner and residing within the property the loan needs to be under your name not the LLC. Doing it under your name carries additional benefits that may come with first time home buyers (assuming you are one). You could talk to your lender if you could transfer the loan to an LLC later (when you move out, when you refinance, etc).