All Forum Posts by: Mack K Everly

Thanks! I will try to make it!

Thank you! I will put it on my calendar!

Hello, everyone

I recently moved to the Rockville-Gaithersburg area. I am actively and aggressively saving money towards buying a place that I can house-hack in some way (e.g., place with a walk-out basement that could be sealed off from the rest of the house and reno'd into an apartment; place with extra land where I could establish an ADU/tiny-house for rent; or a multi-family where I can rent out the other units). Obviously the usual frustrations are in the way with the high interest rates and nearly inaccessible price of entry to the housing market, but I'm a firm believer that where there's a will there's a way. To that end, I would love to connect with local RE professionals and investors. Are there any meetups in the Rockville or Gaithersburg area?

Thanks and I hope to meet some of you in person soon!

Quote from @Joshua Janus:

House hack in Columbus. Areas like Old Town East, Southern Orchards, Merion Village, Hungarian Village, Franklin Park and others are great areas to get started!

Thanks, Joshua! These are all the neighborhoods I'm looking in already and they seem completely inaccessible.  Are you having better luck?  Maybe I just don't know how to analyze a deal properly yet, but I can't seem to make the numbers work on anything I find... admittedly, I'm confined to MLS searches right now though, because I don't have an REI network yet... so off-market deals are unfortunately just not an option for me yet.  Hoping to get plugged into the community soon!

Quote from @Remington Lyman:

 I would house hack in Columbus, Ohio first

 Thanks for the feedback, Remington!  Could you expand on that a little for me as to why you would so strongly pursue a house-hack in a market like Columbus (which feels more inaccessible to me everyday) versus acquiring a cashflowing investment rental property elsewhere?  I want to see how everyone is thinking about these sorts of things since I'm new to the process.

Hey, everyone.  I'm new to the world of real estate investment and am still in the education phase of my journey.  Definitely been frustrating to realize at the age of 32 that I've been taught all the wrong things about how to make my money work for me.  Anyways, everyday I try to look at the multi-family listings in my area mostly for practice in trying to evaluate properties, but also for the off-chance that I find a good opportunity.  I am at a bit of a fork in the road though and I'm curious on others' thoughts/advice.  Basically, I'm trying to decide between continuing my search for a house-hack close to home here in Columbus (feels impossible right now) or doing a long(ish) distance investment in another area (still in-state) where there are actually duplexes that would cashflow right away.  

I've got a good friend who works as a realtor in an area about an hour away from me.  He let me know about a duplex he's got listed for <$200k (unheard of the Columbus areas I want) that is pretty much turnkey.  On top of that, he's offered to be my property manager while I stay in Columbus.  I'm still figuring out how to analyze deals, but from what I can tell the property would cashflow about $400-$500 right off the bat once both sides are rented out.  The only real downside I can see right now is that I would still be renting my current place, so I still wouldn't be "living for free"... but like I said, a "living for free" house-hack is feeling pretty impossible in Columbus right now.  It would at least pay for about 40% of my current rent.  Honestly, even if I don't pull the trigger on this one, a glance at the market in that area shows MUCH more affordable multi-family investment opportunities... so I will come back to this fork in the road if I don't figure out how to deal with it now.

Has anyone else wrestled with this dilemma? How did you solve it? What pushed you over the edge on one side or the other? 

I'm very much stuck in "analysis paralysis" right now despite warnings from BiggerPockets and Rich Dad books and podcasts…

*Note: Moving to this duplex to house-hack it is unfortunately not possible due to my W-2 job. Otherwise, I would gladly just move to the property and house-hack it as even that would give me some small cashflow.*

Thanks in advance for your collective thoughts!