All Forum Posts by: Kyle Baker

 using a **buyers agent** (in most circumstances) is completely free to the buyer so why not get an advocate strictly on your side? 

typing too fast lol

Hey Elijah! I 100% agree with @Joe Funari. I would do your due diligence before hand and find out if the HOA allows rentals. I dont think its a bad idea to purchase if you can do so without over extending yourself. The property *should* appreciate while you are there and make you some money, but you should never buy a property on the hopes that it will. If you can buy at least a 2 bedroom condo maybe you can house hack by renting out the other room. Brings down your expenses by a good bit I'd guess. Enjoy that weather out there though. Im sure its going to be beautiful 🤙

I could not agree more with @Jeff Copeland ! Your real estate agent should be your best asset. The listing agent works for the seller and their fiduciary obligation is to them. If they agree to letting the agent have dual agency (representing both sides) then the agents job becomes more of an intermediary as its impossible to negotiate for the best terms on both sides simultaneously. Now with that said it does happen and it can work perfect for both sides, however using a listing agent (in most circumstances) is completely free to the buyer so why not get an advocate strictly on your side? Why share? If you agent is not being responsive then find a new agent who is. 

Before I go throwing my name out there I would also like to point out that the Indy metro market just went through a massive change with MIBOR and the BLC (basically MLS). There was a lot that was not 100% ready for market when they rolled it out and it has been causing a lot of issues with many agents especially in the older generation. If the slow down has to do with technology within the MLS searches that could be the issue. If the issue is rather to do with responding to calls, text and/or emails then its another thing entirely.

With all that being said if you would like a fresh perspective from an agent who always puts their clients first feel free to shoot me a message. I would be more than happy to assist you but it would require you terminating your current relationship with that agent due to lack of performance. We have very strict code of ethics guidelines and I never want to poach clients from other realtors.   

Hope this helps!

@Stephen Rinaldi could not agree more! Inventory is already an issue and going to only get worse the more the rates drop. More competition + less inventory = higher prices and back to the bidding wars. Wish more people understood the basic supply and demand

 My best piece of advice would be to get in connection with a local real estate expert in that market. I can only give so much advice as I don’t know that market. What I can say is although the home prices and cost of living are drastically more there I have a feeling the incomes are substantially higher as well. An 800k homes is much different in WA than it would be in NC. My question would be how much could I charge to rent the other units/rooms to make it financially make sense. 

Lastly don’t think you have to buy multi to be able to house hack. Obviously it’s your personal preference as safety has to be a concern, but when I house hacked my single family house I was able to rent a single bedroom out. I bought my 3bed 2 bath single family house in early 2020 in Charleston SC for 223k with 5% down. My mortgage was around $1,100 and I was able to rent that room for $700 a month. That was a huge savings for me and I was able to bank that money to save for another. If I had decided to rent out the 3rd bedroom I could have easily got $600 per room which would have allowed me to live for close to nothing. I understand these numbers are significantly lower than what you are looking at, but again the cost of living in SC is much lower than somewhere like WA. Mortgage is higher but so are the rental rates I’d bet. The math still works the same. 

Maybe you could find a 2-3 bedroom single family house, condo or townhouse and house hack that way to get into the game at a lower cost. Be sure to check  that you can rent it out once you are ready to leave if going with a townhouse or condo route though. My first two properties were both townhouses. 

I hope this helped a little. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you’d like more explanation. 

Here is my .02.... House hack that first home. Let others pay for your mortgage while you live essentially for free. Bank all of that money and after 12 months go buy another property and do it again. Turn the first property into a LTR and house hack the second property. After another 12 months do it again. Rinse and repeat for as long as you can/want. I bought my first 3 properties this way minus the house hacking ( I really should have). When you buy as an owner occupied you get better financing terms as well as lower down payments. Make sure the numbers make sense but this was the easiest way for me to acquire properties with little money down. Best of luck!

Hey Thomas! I recently connected with a couple on LinkedIn and they were utilizing the Travel nurse strategy with a duplex on the east side and said they had great luck with it. Do you already have a property you are looking to do this with? Shoot me a message and we can chat!

Hey Raka sorry im so late to respond to this. I am a Realtor® based out of Indianapolis and am able to service Bloomington if need be. Send me a message if you still in search of an investor friendly agent. 

Correction** the meet up is this month. Crazy its already February lol @Tyler Lingle