All Forum Posts by: Logan McKay Zylstra

Personally, house hacking has enabled me to forgo the traditional route out of college and escape W2 life (I'm not knocking traditional jobs, just not for me). However, in today's market, it will take an amazing deal or two and a lot of hard work to reap the early rewards of house hacking.

House hacking today looks different from when I started, but it doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile. As a house hacker today, you probably won't break even on your housing costs and definitely won't cashflow (you can cashflow with a BRRRR house hack or a great deal). However, that isn't the point of the house hack strategy so don't get caught up in the fact that your deal probably won't cashflow and use that as an excuse to not take action.

I believe there are two paths of house hacking in UT right now.

1. House hackers should focus on decreasing their housing costs and use their savings for other forms of real estate investing. Such as flipping, STR/MTRs, out-of-state investing, or whatever the preference of investing.

2. The other option is to buy a house hack every year or two as possible and buy and hold. Right now you are going to need to put more down to make the numbers make sense on a monthly basis, but over time you'll let rental growth, appreciation, and mortgage paydown run their course. If you house hack 2-3 times in 30 years you will have millions of dollars in equity and paid-off homes. I wouldn't recommend this strategy as a first option but if this aligns with your goals, you'll be much better off for it.

For those who are interested in what I have seen work the best locally for house hacking. 1. Renting by the room if your situation permits. 2. Mother-in-law apartments. MIL apartment properties aren't always valued for the value that they provide a homeowner. 3. The more units on a multifamily property (2-4 units), the more the numbers make sense. Meaning, fourplexes offer the best opportunity while duplexes are not as great.

Romney, awesome that you are trying to get involved. Home inspection licenses actually take a super long time/hours to obtain. I would recommend working for a lender or real estate brokerage. Just get in the room as people actively in RE and use that time to make some money but more importantly get the experience.

I am an investor and have my license. Being new to RE, I would probably get your first deal under your belt before thinking about getting your license. Three biggest benefits to having your license:

1. Utah is a nondisclosure state so access to the MLS and comparable sales will be extremely beneficial.

2. You can use the 2-3% commission as a downpayment.

3. You can submit as many offers as you want.

If you aren't planning on doing a lot of transactions yourself, I wouldn't recommend it. Before I was licensed, I won deals because of who my agent was. Agents can be overpaid but the good ones who are in the market every day doing deals are worth the 2-3%.

Awesome Jonathan. Welcome to the community. If you’re looking for cash flow, I would recommend going out of state like you mentioned. I really love the Utah market but doesn’t make a ton of sense from a cashflow perspective. 

Hey Douglas. That is every house hackers in SLC’s dilemma. The only house hack opportunities that I’ve seen cash flow are single family houses and renting by the room. Not saying multi units won’t every cash flow but you have to be quick and sometimes creative to land the deal.

As a house hacked myself I am just looking at 4plexes and eating the negative cash flow. I am a buy and hold guy so I am okay not picking up the sexiest deals upfront and okay waiting for rent increases, debt pay down, and appreciation to its thing.

PMs can be great for a lot of reasons but if you are chasing the most cash flow possible self managing will likely be your best bet. 

You can hire someone local PM, realtor, etc to host an open house and to show potential tenants if you decide to self manage. This way you are just paying a one time fee rather than 8-10% monthly + additional fees.

I post my rentals on Rentler (doubles as my application/screening and rent collection platform), KSL (local Craigslist), FB marketplace/groups and Zillow.

Big congrats on your rental!

I always recommend getting started with a house hack. It will reduce your monthly living expenses so you can invest more frequently in the future. Cash flow in UT is tough to find right now.

Would need a bit more info but 0% interest in option 1 is a GREAT option.

Numbers don’t make a ton of sense right now. Numbers are better on 3 or 4 units if you can swing the downpayment for that.

You’re on the right track. Try house hacking next, it changed my family’s life!