All Forum Posts by: Khang Nguyen

I purchased my current primary residence (Portland, OR) back in October 2019 with a conventional loan. We rent out the top portion of the house while my financee and I live in the basement. There is a separate entrance with a shared laundry room. We are working through a refi and the appraiser came by today to take a look at the house and he asked if I was renting out the top and I said yes. Then he says, "well that changes things" and I ask how so and he responds, "well now it would be considered an investment property."

So I'm a little worried that my refinance will get rejected now if they would consider this an investment property instead of a primary residence. This is what my mortgage disclosure papers say in the occupancy agreement (I checked the primiary residence box), "If the Borrowers have indicated that the Property is their primary residence, the Borrowers represent that they have no present intent to sell, lease, rent or otherwise dispose of said Property, upon occupancy of the Property they will not have any other permanent and primary residence, and the Property is not used for investment purposes." Not actually sure how this plays out if I'm owner occupying the space.

I'll hear back from the lender sometime next week but was just wanting to get any stories from others who have gone through a similar situation.

This is incorrect, at least in Oregon but I would assume other states are similar. The tenant can look up your LLC's name in the state's database and it will list the members of the LLC and the registered agent. So if you're looking to hide who you are from the tenant, I don't think creating an LLC will provide that. Hiring a property manager would be your best bet for anonymity.

Hi BP Community! I've been listening to the podcast on/off for the last few years and have been looking for a duplex/house-hacking opportunity in that span. I made an offer in August 2018 on a duplex but after going through the final inspection and seeing mold in the bathroom ceiling, I wasn't ready to take on such a project as my first investment property.

Fast forward to September 2019 and my girlfriend actually found a perfect place in SE Portland that had a "finished" basement with a separate entrance and bathroom/kitchen. I honestly wasn't looking since I was quite busy at work but she found the property while scrolling through Zillow and we couldn't believe it had been on the market for 56 days! It's a hot market here in Portland for starter homes. The price was within our range ($365k) and the neighborhood was great, however, the house is old at circa 1926 but is common in Portland. I took the dive and made the offer at $365k because I didn't want it to slip away - the seller had it originally at $385k but there were no takers until he dropped it to our price.

We got the keys on 9/25 and have been feverishly doing renovations to the basement unit to make it more livable and we have reached a good stopping point after tearing our the carpet and installing vinyl laminate planks, taking out the cabinets and putting in Ikea ones with butcher block counter tops, and finishing with base board and quarter round molding. We did all the work ourselves and it's been very rewarding to see the progress and finished product - next steps is back splash and moving a gas line, I might sub that one out because I don't want to blow up the house lol Our tenant is currently living in the top unit on a 1 year lease but we're not in a rush to move up to renovate that unit yet.

Just wanted to say hi and see if anybody had any tips for house hacking, renovation ideas/best practices, and overall helpful advice. We probably won't be looking for the next piece of property until we move in the top unit and renovate that so another 2-3 years.