All Forum Posts by: Justin Reagan

I currently have 1 LTR unit, so my business does not have too many software needs at the moment. I use google workspace to have a separate email for my rentals, apartments.com for free property management and rent collection, and Stessa, which comes with BP pro, for my income/expense tracking. Hopefully these can be useful for you since you're just starting out too!

I'm currently taking the courses to get my license in the same market! I don't think it needs to be an all or nothing approach. I plan to work as an agent part-time to build experience, confidence, and clients before I consider leaving my salaried position. If it doesn't work out, it will still be useful for my own investing to have my license. 

 Lorie, my house hack is a duplex. Triplexes and quadplexes give better returns, but I wanted to start conservatively to learn.

Agree with these responses. You'll most likely be managing a house hack yourself, so I would recommend another book by Brandon Turner: The Book on Managing Rental Properties.

I'll tell you the steps I took when getting into house hacking:

1. Read about and research the industry (BP Book on Rental Property Investing, Managing Rental Properties, Real Estate by the numbers, etc., youtube, and podcasts). Network with friends and professionals in the industry.

2. While you're reading and learning, start looking at listings in the market you are interested in (both for sale and for rent). This helps you learn the price range, quality, amenities, competition, etc. for the homes you are interested in purchasing and for the rental properties that will be your competition when you are renting out one of the units/bedrooms while house hacking.

3. Find a lender to get preapproved and find a real estate agent to work with to aquire the property.

4. Open a separate bank account for the property and manage the property like a business. I like to pay myself the expected rent of the unit I live in and also contribute any savings into the property account. Then when the account has appropriate reserves and enough to withdraw for another downpayment, move onto the next one!

If you want to do this multiple times, it is important to be mindful of what your DTI will be after purchasing the first property.

House hacking is always a great option for your first investment. You can get experience and see if this business is something you can manage while also building a career as an attorney. If it works for you and you like it, there's nothing stopping you from scaling. If it proves to be too much, a good option for high income earners is to get into private lending. You could be a silent partner for someone who has the time to manage the business if your career becomes too demanding as an attorney.

Apartments.com is great for your situation! I don't use it for background checks, but it's a great free website for your other property management needs.

I started myself with a small multifamily house hack. Helps me save money on my own housing and learn a ton about the business without burning through my cash on the first deal.

I would recommend a mortgage broker which is what I used for my house hack. They shopped around for me and got me better terms than the credit unions I met with. 

There are several variables, but it usually is related to the cap of the area. In a bad neighborhood, the sale prices will be lower and the caps will be higher. So your income approach appraisal will come out much higher versus the comp approach. If the income approach appraisal is much lower than the comp approach, it is most likely a hot market and more of an appreciation play. These are just a couple of things you need to consider. But no matter what the income approach appraisal says though, I would never buy a property that is far priced over it's comparables.