All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Cowan

@Alexander Small - My wife and I purchased a 3 flat in Aug 2017 in Portage Park. We used the 5% down loan that I don’t think is available any longer. We’ve had a blast at our home, lots of ups and downs, but we recently refinanced and we are now at $300 POSITIVE cash flow per month with reserves while owner occupying. We legit get paid $300/mo to live in our 2/1 unit that we kind of like. This has changed our financial lives, and we have almost $100K in equity to boot. When we move out we are looking at $1800-$2000/month in positive cash flow. I cannot recommend this process more highly.

We worked with @Brie Schmidt to purchase our home and also strongly recommend her. I don’t think you’ll find anyone that knows this particular niche better.

Please reach out if you have questions on house hacking. Happy to help if we can.

-Kenny

@Ellen Morrison - To me, I wouldn’t count property taxes, insurance, and prepaid interest as closing costs. Those are just expenses happening up front. So if you exclude those, that is closer to the figure of “closing costs” that you were quoted. It’s tough for anyone to give a ballpark for those as there’s a huge swing if property taxes were paid last month coming due next month. I think of closing costs as loan expenses only + title + transfer fees/taxes. Just my two cents there.

Also, someone mentioned this, but closing costs as a % of purchase don’t hold up at lower purchase prices. Title work is essentially the same for a $50k or $500k house (other than the actual insurance policy cost).

So I’ve been kicking around this idea for a while, and have decided to put it in motion.

I am a house hacker, and I love to talk about it, especially with other house hackers. So I want to start a monthly meetup here in Chicago to share ideas and experiences. Would be open to current and prospective house hackers. Could have guided meeting topics like leases, house mechanicals (HVAC, plumbing, roofs/windows/drainage, insurance, taxes, Chicago ordinance laws, etc,). We just get a beer or coffee and chat together, maybe a few minutes of a presentation from an expert eventually.

So before I go putting something together like a meeting site, would anyone be interested? Send me contact info if so.

-Kenny

I'm a little late to the thread, but just to add further support, I did a Home Possible at 5% down in Aug 2017 on a 3-unit. It's is far favorable to FHA if you can swing it for two reasons: 1) no lifetime PMI, and 2) no MIP. Those two are killer on FHA. Good luck on the house hacking, it's the best way to start.

@Maria Teo thanks for reviving this thread. I am interested as well. Will be following.

Melissa Rios said above already, but the Portage Park / Jefferson Park area is working really well for Kaitlyn Cowan and I. We are beating all our expectations. The area keeps adding new restaurants, breweries, and infrastructure projects (huge repair/pavement on Cicero in last week). When they finalize the Sears/Six Corners projects the area should pop. Happy to share my financials for a purchase in August 2017 via PM. -Kenny

Congrats Will. Looks like a successful project. Did you end up appraising at your ARV target of $150k?

Nope that’s just me missing an obvious detail. My fault. But yes, on mobile device. Thanks Todd, sorry for the confusion. 

Hi Todd. Would you mind sharing the address on this one? I’d like to use this as an example to show my agent of the type of property I am looking for. This one would have been perfect, wish I had seen this last week. 

Thanks,

Kenny

Ross Denman all excellent points. I should be leaning on the valuable insights of a good PM, but I haven’t yet ventured down that path. I’ll reach out via PM to connect and discuss, but wanted to thank you for your thorough and thoughtful response here. It’s got me thinking a lot.