All Forum Posts by: Laura Hines

@Mark Hove we have a pretty similar story to yours just a few months behind you! Quick question for you. How have you been doing your finances? Did you open a separate bank account and credit card for your house hack? When you have been doing renovations on your unit has that been coming out of a personal account or a business account? 

We just closed on a house hack last week 168,000 purchase price, we put 20% down, PITI is $965, the other side is currently being rented for $675 by a sweet older woman, but our appraisal said that it would easily would rent for $750 in current condition. We hope she stays after we raise rent! With renovations I am convinced we could get between $800-900 for it. We are going to renovate our side while living in it and already saving for our next house hack.

@Richard Yount I just stumbled upon this post and wondered if you could update me on what you did with your house hack and how it went. We just closed on our first house hack last week and are wondering the same thing. I am interested in what you did for bank accounts. Did you open a separate one? It seems like that is the way to go for tax purposes. Also if you did repairs on your unit vs. the rented ones did you deduct that out of your personal account or your business one?

Another thing to think about is that is just an estimate. We closed on a house last week and our original closing cost estimate was $5,375 but the actual numbers when everything was said and done was $3,906 which is a big difference. Your processing fee and appraisal seems kinda high to me. 

Hello BP community! 

I have been lurking for the last 6 or so months listening to podcasts, reading forums and real estate books, watching webinars, and just geeking out in general about how much real estate investing just makes sense. I completed my masters last May and started a full time job as a scientist with the state of Kansas. After several months of my job I started realizing there was no way I wanted to have a W2 job for 40 years and genuinely one day stumbled upon the podcast. I immediately made my husband start getting involved in BP and we read rich dad poor dad (classic) and we knew real estate was it for us. We were lucky to discover that at age 23 with very little student debt, decent W2 jobs, cheap rent, no kids, and a drive to get at least one of us (hopefully both) off our W2 jobs. We had been looking at most multifamily homes that went on the market in Lawrence, KS where we live. We had told ourselves that before August we would have a house, so as not to sign another lease. We closed on our first property last week. I am so glad that I stumbled upon bigger pockets, we would have never thought about house hacking if we hadn't! An added bonus is that my husband over the summer started working at a hardwood flooring company and we get hardwood floors for CHEAP and they will help us install them. He's making great connections with contractors. We are planning on doing some renovations so eventually I will get around to posting some before and after pictures. 

Another tip is if you do get student renters that are great tenants suggest they find some of their friends to live there when they move out. We live in a college town and some of the landlords get streams of good student renters year after year simply because the good tenants want to "pass down" their house or apartment to their friends. Typically good tenants have friends who will be good tenants. Obviously still make sure you are vetting, but it can be worth it. I know an investor in our town who hasn't had a vacancy in 10 years and had a great tenants simply by this "passing down" of sorts in a competitive student market.

My husband and I are newbies looking to purchase a house back in lawrence.