All Forum Posts by: Kyle Hilliard

Hey everyone, 

I just stopped by a SFH rental of ours and noticed that one of the tenant's sons is sleeping in the basement which doesn't have an egress window. The tenants are two sisters, each of whom has two children (so 6 people total in the house), and the house has 4 bedrooms. We only advertised the actual bedrooms as sleeping areas. What do you think I should do to resolve the problem?

Sorry if this question is redundant, I found a couple similar posts on the forum, but still was unsure what I should do. One post basically said that where the tenant sleeps is their business, and other posts said to make sure that nobody is sleeping in a windowless room for fire safety and liability reasons. 

We don't currently have the cash saved up to install an egress window in the basement. Other than this issue, the tenants have been wonderful so I'd like to resolve this as smoothly as possible for both sides. 

Thanks for your help!

Hey everyone, 

I am going to buy my first rental property in the next few months and am looking for a CPA to advise me on REI tax issues. I want to be proactive about tax planning, so I'd like to meet with this person throughout the year, not just around mid-April. I met with one CPA but I don't think he will be a good fit for me. The vibe I got from him was that when you have a specific tax issue, you call him, and he fixes it for you. I want to work with someone who will LET ME KNOW of problems/ways I can maximize deductions well in advance. The person I met with also wasn't great at explaining complicated tax jargon into simpler terms. I want someone who is able to explain these concepts to me so I can learn.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a CPA that they've worked with that fits my description above? I live in Michigan, but am completely open to working with someone remotely. 

Thank you all in advance!

Hey Alicia, 

I went through a similar thing with my wife. She is definitely more onboard with REI now than when I first brought it up to her, but I'm still the driving force behind it. I think the big thing I learned is to be patient. I spent much more time reading, doing analysis of properties etc than her, so I think it makes sense that I was more comfortable than she was. I tried discussing things I learned with her, but it was overwhelming after awhile. My advice is to take things slow, and I think your partner will gradually warm up to the idea. Maybe just get them to say yes to one property and see how it goes, that way the don't feel like they are committing to a whole lifestyle of investing. Also, maybe come up with a plan that has a relatively easy and cheap exit strategy (buying a single family instead of a multi family for example). They might me more willing to try if they know there is an easy way out if things don't go as planned.

Good luck! Just give it time and I’m sure it’ll all work out. 

@Derrick E. @Alecia Loveless Thank you both very much! I will work on finding another lender. 

@Ashley Cross My DTI shouldn't be a problem. Like you and @Chris Mason said, I think maybe this lender doesn't have much experience dealing with investors, especially someone looking to house hack. 

@Chris Mason Thanks, Chris. We were hoping to buy the new multifamily close to where we live now, so it wouldn't be much of a difference in location. We would be "downgrading" from a 4 bed, 2 bath SFH to a 2 bed, 1 bath unit in a 4-plex. So just to clarify, unless we have some other reason for moving, an underwriter won't approve the loan for us? Isn't living mortgage-free (or reducing mortgage) a good enough reason?

@Ashley Cross We purchased it in June of 2020, so a little over a year ago. The lender I'm talking to now is actually the same lender we used to buy our current residence. He works for a different company now though. Do you think I should meet with some other lenders and see if they are able to approve me for the FHA with 3.5% down?

@Ashley Cross No, our current home is financed with a conventional mortgage. 

Hey everyone, 

My wife and I are currently looking to purchase our first multifamily property (preferably a 4-plex) to house hack. Ideally, we would like to use an FHA loan for the 3.5% down payment. We currently own a single family home, and want to rent it out once we move into the multifamily. Our current home is in East Lansing, MI and we would like the multifamily to be in the same general area.

I spoke to my lender about our plan, and he said that if the SFH and multifamily are in the same area (within 50 miles was his cutoff), they would treat the multifamily as an investment property, and we'd have to put down 25%. I can think of a few potential ways forward:

1. Suck it up and pay the 25% down payment

2. Sell our current house? I'm not sure if that would fix the problem or not. 

3. Buy a multifamily 50 miles away from our SFH. We planned on self-managing these properties, so I'm not sure if that's too great of a distance to be traveling back and forth to do maintenance etc.

4. Use an alternative source of financing such as seller financing. 

Have any of you run into this problem before? We have around $70,000 to invest, so we really wanted to make our money go as far as possible. 

Thank you all so much for your help!

@Brandon Rush @Troy DeLong Thanks for your advice. That helps a lot!