All Forum Posts by: Josh Bowser

Hey @Akshay Bhaskaran - just reached out. Might be able to help you out there

Hey Akshay - I am thinking you can include this as an expense, but I would consult a tax person to make sure you're on the up&up there.

What are the terms on your home warranty? Any deductible?

I have heard of people praising their home warranty, and I have heard of them cursing it as well. 

The benefit of having them (obviously) is to reduce the amount of reserves you need to keep back if something we're to break!

@Michael Dumler @Anthony Fontana @Ben Firstenberg - have any of you guys seen a 20% drop in rents in ATL?

Hey Hansel - If you plan on looking living in CA for a while, you might be best served by house hacking a SFH/condo/town home near where you live now.

Yes small multi family is great, but stretching yourself financially is not. I would recommend buying something in the best neighborhood that you can afford. 

Out of state investing is great, we help a lot of out of state clients here in Atlanta. However, most of the time the cash flow of a LTR in a low cost of living area will not move the needle for your personal finances like house hacking in a high cost of living area will. 

If you have any questions or would like to chat - my DMs are always open!

Hey @Michelle Richardson - you will need something with a Gurantor clause.

Has your son rented from a college rental property management company before? If so, you may be able to use that lease as your own, but you would want to get it looked at by a local attorney to make sure you are squared away! 

Paying the attorney to approve/provide a lease like this is just part of doing business, and YOUR LEASE WILL DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE A GOOD EXPERIENCE. 

You should be able to use this lease year after year so it will likely be an upfront investment that you'll be happy to have

Hey Annie - you're asking the right question here.

With the assumption you can comfortably afford both houses without the rental income AND they are in equivalent neighborhoods, the house hack will be better from a pure financial perspective for the following reasons:

1. Appreciation of a higher priced house will lead to a $$ of appreciation due to leverage. Let's say both houses appreciate 10% over the next 10 years, then you have gotten an extra $12k in networth from the same down payment.

2. You can save/invest the $800 dollar difference over 10 years and have an extra $96k liquid over that period of time OR use that extra $800 to help pay down the mortgage faster.

3. Higher home value means you can depreciate more $$ every year

4. If you choose to move in the future, you have the ability to rent out both units and will likely cashflow based off your numbers.

5. It is possible that market rent for that ADU will also increase over time.

In other words, your time to recoup the difference will likely be less than 8.3 years on paper depending what you do with the extra $800

Hey Ashish - buying a cash flow negative property is speculation that either prices will appreciate or net income will increase over time. Some folks will do this with the intention of developing the land for a higher and better use in the future, or will do this simply if they expect the property to go up in value. There is a time and place for it, but you probably should not do this unless you have significant income coming in from other investments/income streams to cover the difference. 

What is your ultimate goal for your first investment property?

 Good luck!!! :)

Wonderful! I'm sure you can find some other MHP investors here on BP that own in OR that can recommend local banks on some smaller parks. 

Hey Travis:

1. If you're working with an agent that is experienced in working with value add properties, they should be able to give you a good idea of how much value those additions would create.

2. This all depends on your situation. It's really hard to go wrong with a househack with proper DD. However, you can do a lot with 100k + a hard money loan if you have the appetite for more risk. There are also a lot of markets where you can use that 100k and buy a turn key rental with 20-40% down, but I would not expect to cash flow too much right now.

3. The best way to pay for a reno is obviously with cash from a risk standpoint. However, you can talk to your lender about getting an owner occupied construction/rehab loan.