All Forum Posts by: Joshua Hughes

Goodmorning BP family- I have added an additional single family house to my portfolio so I am now house hacking two homes. Both of them are by the bedroom and this new one I just completed a master bedroom build added on to the back of the house with a private entrance for myself so I’m currently renting out the other 3 beds.Which cost me thousands more than I expected due to contractors not performing like I had expected etc etc. So needless to say that I need the rents coming in.

my problem that I have is that one of my first tenants brings his girlfriend over every night and they argue by slamming doors and disturbing my other tenants. I have talked to both of them because I only rented to the guy and he told me that he was single before signing the lease. I then find him bringing her around still and now she has a key to the house. How I know this is that I have recently put up cameras outside the house. I’m not sure how I can stop this in the best way possible.

Please any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Goodmorning BP family- I have added an additional single family house to my portfolio so I am now house hacking two homes. Both of them are by the bedroom and this new one I just completed a master bedroom build added on to the back of the house with a private entrance for myself so I’m currently renting out the other 3 beds.Which cost me thousands more than I expected due to contractors not performing like I had expected etc etc. So needless to say that I need the rents coming in. 

my problem that I have is that one of my first tenants brings his girlfriend over every night and they argue by slamming doors and disturbing my other tenants. I have talked to both of them because I only rented to the guy and he told me that he was single before signing the lease. I then find him bringing her around still and now she has a key to the house. How I know this is that I have recently put up cameras outside the house. I’m not sure how I can stop this in the best way possible.

Please any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello All! 

To give a little back story upfront here...I'm currently House Hacking and acquiring my new property soon. Both single family 3B1B's. My question is when it comes to Renters Insurance. What limits are needed? Should I be listed as "additionally insured"? Do any of you use this ..why/why not?...
I will be renting by the room in the house I'm currently moving out of and just want to lower my risk and reduce turn over. Any help would be appreciated very much. Thank you all! 

 Awesome tips from you both! Didn't even realize I needed permits for something like this lol Very good to know information-If you have any recommendations on contractors/companies, I can use that you have worked with; I'm always looking for great referrals!  

Hi BP family! 

To give you a little background...I bought my first house hack 2 years ago almost to the day & currently under contract on my second both SFH 3-1's..i'm wondering what i would need to look at in terms of turning a "sun room" into another bedroom & adding another Half or Full Bathroom. I'm guessing it has to be sealed off so utilities dont get out of hand; i'm curious on the exact steps to make this happen. This room already has would flooring put in and 3 doors in or out. several windows. Located at the back of the house...my hopes is to somehow turn this into a 4B 2B home which would increase my cashflow significantly! Please let me know if you need more context or clarification.

i'm potentially wanting to live in this part of the house and rent out all 3 rooms inside the main livng area, just wondering how feasable this is and/or how cost effective it would be. 

Thank you BP always like the insights you have to offer!

Hello All! Thanks for the attention, so I bought my first property in December of last year. This year on a positive note I've been able to rent out the rooms consistently. Murphy apparently moved in too. lol the part where I am falling short is the amount of money its costing to repair the house...things I'm not sure i could have even prevented during the inspection. HVAC, Electrical box..flooring grout coming up from the new tile. This last one is where I'm lost on what to do about it...The front siding on my house is warping from the sun pretty bad? Has anyone had this problem? Installation errors aren't covered by Insurance from what I'm told. I can't figure out how to get ahold of the company that originally did the work. All these repairs are thousands of dollars so what I've collected in rent is pretty close to what I've spent on these repairs.

My question I guess is how is everyone doing repairs and maintenance, but ALSO saving money for their second (2nd) House Hack?? 

Do you still buy your next house if your first househack is draining or still costing you money?

How would you buy a house off the county assessor website? And is it a good idea to buy a rundown house for cheap? Newbie here⁉️

Thanks everyone 😁

Hello fellow BP family, 

I am in need of some advice on how to proceed..but first I will give a description of my house hack. 

Bought my first SFH in December of last year by using the BP analysis. I bought a 3B1B. Rented out the two other rooms & of course I am staying in the Third room. This home is about 1000sqft not that gigantic of a place. I was upfront with the space and of course have rental agreements with both tenants. Not wanting guests to get out of control I leased to (2)single younger males who said they pretty much stick to themselves. Since I have a similar vibe, I thought it would be a good fit...

To make this quick my question- One of my tenants in the other room started having a guest come over more and more often which is fine...then this person started to stay over the entire weekend. Then a night or two throughout the week. Now this person has an actual toothbrush and shower supplies moved into the bathroom. Pretty much the tenant who's renting has moved her in kind of under the radar. 

I'll preface this with two things, first my thoughts on having guests over in a smaller type house. If every room has a guest that is 6 people sharing everything, shower, toilet, kitchen, etc...Now the second is tht the guest this tenant has essentially moved in hasn't caused any problems and I really don't mind. Idk if this is because they are just trying to keep under the radar still and once i say its ok or whatever they'll get out of control. 

How do I go about approaching this? Because how I handle this "couple" will I'm sure affect the other tenant. My thoughts are that the guest isn't on the lease/application. Not paying rent or anything; pretty much living here for free. The person renting the room is really living paycheck to paycheck. He qualified 3x income but just isn't good with money, I guess. The last week of the month says that he is living on less than fifty bucks. He has 100 percent of the time paid on the 1st so he isn't horrible and seems to get that rent is important. 

What do I do about the guest? The tenants lease expires in two months..

I recently bought my first house hack in Dec. of last year 2021. I am wanting to stay with this and look for my second one at the end of the year. The realtor that i had didn't do much when it comes to helping me figure out if it was a good investment and i found all of my inspectors myself. Found a better insurance guy as well. I've been following bigger pockets for at least two years now read and reread I think all of their books and countless hours of YouTube videos. My favorite being the House Hacking strategy by Craig Curelop. My question is that when it comes to the year in between of saving, analyzing deals and I'm already set up on the MLS. I have found duplexes that i can see in person without tenants. Do I even need a realtor? Bigger Pockets says to look for an investor friendly agent but none of them want to actually help unless I'm preapproved again. I'll admit I'm still very much new so having someone who knows what something will rent for, and certain maintenance advice might come in handy as well. Has everyone investing right now even needed a REI agent or did they just go with a PM to give them advice on properties. Once I was able to physically see properties It gave me so much more than just reading about doing it if that makes sense.

Besides letting me in the door of the properties they don't seem to provide much value. Maybe I'm looking at this wrong but if I wait until the last 90 days to shop and physically look for a duplex finding a "deal" will be too late. Seems the agents are just concerned about their personal check and not actually giving value. My first SFH that I closed on I'm renting by the room and didn't need any hand holding, no exaggeration.

To sum up I want to learn from the mistakes I made on the first deal and start earlier on my second deal to be able to close by the end of this year. What would be your advice? 

Should I use a PM & just a regular RE agent again or have you found real noticeable value in an 'Investor friendly RE agent"?

How did you handle your second House Hack & Is a year just too early?

Thank you all for any real advice and or comments!

@Will Frazer, I appreciate that advice, that is a really good way of thinking about it.