All Forum Posts by: Kyle Davidson

@Joey Llamas,

There are a few ways to analyze potential house hacks. The two main criteria that I look at are ensuring that my PITI is covered or close to covered while living in the property and making sure the property cashflows when I move out when factoring in Capex. I also look at COC return when I move out of the property. For example my first house hack I bought a SF home and my PITI was $2043, I got 3 roommates whose total rent was $2300 per month, utilities included in the rent. When I moved out of the property I ensured that the property would cash flow at least $100 when factoring in Capex. Currently I rent out the property for $2650 and am currently cash flowing around $250 per month. Granted the deal doesn't look like a home run when looking at the cash flow numbers but the SF home has appreciated over $100,000 and more importantly I got my real estate journey started.

In regards to renting out the rooms I monitored Zillow, FB marketplace, and Craigslist to look at local rentals in the area. On these sites I would both look at 1 bedroom apartments and individuals looking for roommates/renting by the room. I would then compare my property to those rent ads to help determine a price point, while ensuring that my price point was below the 1 bedroom apartment rentals. I would recommend including utilities if you decide to rent by the room as you can run into potential issues splitting the utilities between all the roommates. Personally, I charged $100 a person for all utilities.

@Francis Figueroa I would first recommend some self education before diving in. Personally, I think some great books to get started are The House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop, Set For Life by Scott Trench, and How to Invest In Real Estate by Brandon Turner. 

Once you have some self education under your belt its time to get started and not get stuck in analysis paralysis. I would connect with a local agent who has experience working with investors and is an investor themselves, you can always utilize the BP Network to find an agent. Your agent should help you potentially connect with a local lender (doesn't hurt to shop around for some local lenders either, I typically avoid the larger companies).

I would also say that your probably not going to find "the perfect deal", especially your first time around. Don't be afraid to get creative to make the deal work and always make sure the numbers work while your living there and when you move out. For example I am currently on my second house hack, living in one side of a duplex and have a roommate so I can live for free.

Your first deal is not going to be perfect but the most important part is getting started, continuing to learn, and working to grow your network.

@Kevin Piwowarski the tenant just has to link there bank account in cozy. Once it is linked the payment is automatically withdrawn each month and neither party has to worry about the rent being paid.

@Kevin Piwowarski I would recommend trying cozy.co as a website to screen tenants. I am currently house hacking and I utilized the website to run a background check, credit check, and I currently collect rent through cozy as well. Regarding pre screening tenants I would recommend doing a phone interview first to get an idea if the individual would be a good fit, as you will be living with this person. If they pass the Phone interview pre screen, you can then get a feel for the person during the in person showing. 

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $375,000
Cash invested: $55,000

2700 square foot house in Conshohocken, PA. I utilize the Rent by the Room strategy to live for free and plan to turn it into a full time rental once I buy my second house hack. Shortly after closing on the deal, I ran into a costly mold issue in the finished basement that ended up costing me over $20,000. However, even after this unexpected expense after 1 year I received and NWROI of 74%. 

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

House Hacking is a great way to get started in real estate investing while reducing your living expenses. I wanted to buy a house where I could live for free and that would cashflow once I move out.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional 5% down

What was the outcome?

Living Free for 1 year and will be able to cash flow 200 after all expenses once moved out.

Hey Megan,

I can not speak on the Las Vegas market as I invest in the Philly Suburbs. However, as Bill mentioned you can always buy a SFH and either rent by the room, look to build a an ADU (Additional Dwelling Unit) as mentioned in Episode 53 of House Hacking success, or look to split the SFH and make a mother in law suite/duplex. Personally, I rented by the room in my first house hack and am now looking to buy a SFH and turn it into a duplex/mother in law suite to live in while I rent out the other unit.

Hi Matt,

I am currently searching for my second House Hack and just went through the loan process. I do not know if the loan requirements and restrictions vary state to state. I worked with my lender to get pre approved for my next loan.

I would recommend connecting with a good lender and working through your different options.

Last year I bought my first investment property as a house hack. I was new to the real estate game, fresh off reading The House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop and had just begun listening to the BP Podcast. The idea of living for free and building my investment portfolio excited me and I immediately took action. Without much thought I dove into the housing search with a real estate agent who is a family friend and told him the market I was looking to invest in as well as my plans with the property. My real estate agent had never heard of the house hacking and wasn't familiar with the area I was looking to purchase a home in. I set up alerts with my agent to receive an email when a property fit my certain criteria, however when I would text/call him to go check out a property he would always tell me we can check it out the upcoming weekend, needless to say I missed out on a lot of potential properties because of this. Overall, my experience with the real estate agent wasn't great.

I am now looking to begin the search for my second house hack and am trying to figure out how to connect with a great real estate agent. I am looking to invest in an suburb outside of Philadelphia called Phoenixville, PA. What advice do you guys have on how to find and connect with a great real estate agent?

Last year I bought my first investment property as a house hack. I was new to the real estate game, fresh off reading The House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop and had just begun listening to the BP Podcast. The idea of living for free and building my investment portfolio excited me and I immediately took action. Without much thought I dove into the housing search with a real estate agent who is a family friend and told him the market I was looking to invest in as well as my plans with the property. My real estate agent had never heard of the house hacking and wasn't familiar with the area I was looking to purchase a home in. I set up alerts with my agent to receive an email when a property fit my certain criteria, however when I would text/call him to go check out a property he would always tell me we can check it out the upcoming weekend, needless to say I missed out on a lot of potential properties because of this. Overall, my experience with the real estate agent wasn't great.

I am now looking to begin the search for my second house hack and am trying to figure out how to connect with a great real estate agent.  I am looking to invest in an suburb outside of Philadelphia called Phoenixville, PA. What advice do you guys have on how to find and connect with a great real estate agent?

@Chace Corbett

Yes you can get an FHA loan even if you have a conventional loan in place. However, you are only allowed to have one FHA loan at a time. To get out of the FHA loan you would have to refinance your current mortgage, once that is completed you would then be able to utilize the FHA loan again. If you plan to continue to house hack in the future I would recommend trying to utilize the FHA loan down the road on the potential duplex or triplex as it can be more difficult to use a conventional loan on a small multi family property. However, you should definitely talk a loan officer/mortgage company and let them know exactly what your plan is and see what options might be best for you. I was able to purchase my first house hack using a conventional loan with only 5% down.