All Forum Posts by: Mathew Fuller

Hello,

I am starting to go to meetups in the Fort Collins area to meet people and for education in Real Estate Investing. I also wanted to post on here too and see if anyone is up for grabbing a beer or coffee and talk real estate, or looking at different deals together on the market. I am still very new to real estate with a lot to learn, just closed on my first house in Fort Collins about a month ago and having my first tenant (roommate) move in on the first of December. I'm really open to talk about anything, but my primary focus is house hacking \ live, rehab, and long term holding. I spend most of my time in Fort Collins and Boulder, so that would probably be the easiest for me to meet up, but I am up to traveling to Greeley, Windsor, Loveland area as well. I want to surround myself with like minded individuals seeking financial independence. If you guys know of any master mind \ self development groups or meetups in Boulder or Fort Collins that would be great as well.

Happy holidays

Hello BP,

I am wondering if I am correctly protecting myself with the current house hack that I am doing. I recently bought a property and currently renting out one of the two rooms (with the second one to be soon rented out). Before I closed on the property, my insurance advisor advised me to get an umbrella policy, which insures me up to $1M. Do you think this is adequate, should I look at putting my house into an LLC? What do you do to protect your assets while being a landlord?

Thanks

@Michael King

I could have $1500 in a checking account that yes, prevents me from being charged $12 a month as a service fee

OR

I could have $1500 in a online savings account with Discover or Amex that gives me a 1-2% interest rate on my money, even if its just a few bucks.

I agree $1500 is not a lot of money, however it is just sitting in a
checking account not doing anything (ie, not invested making me a few
bucks), it's just a placeholder for the account to hold the fee. My
question is to gain some insight on what others are doing that I may not
be thinking that is a much better option. In a few years, that $1500 will be worth less than what it's worth today, that's what i'm trying to prevent.

Hello BP,

I have a few questions:

First

I recently acquired my first tenant in a house a hack. Today I opened up a new checking account with my bank, and I either need to have direct deposit setup with a minimum of $500 deposited each month (which I can't do because this is rental income), or I need to maintain a $1500 balance at all times to avoid a fee. Is there a better way / account that I should be using for receiving rental income so that my $1500 isn't wasting away not working?

Second

What do you do with your rental income to make it work for you? I was thinking about forwarding it onto my online savings which has a 1.5-2% interest rate, or sending it to my individual broker account and investing it in a mix of VTI / other index funds. To me though when I invest in index funds the goal is long term, and I want to access my rental income within the next year or two to get my next property, I don't want to potentially lose money when I need to pull money out for a deal, and also don't want to pay any captial gains taxes, but the online savings may not be the strongest way I can park my money. Ideas?

Thanks

@Marduk Mooshoolzadeh

@Marduk Mooshoolzadeh

I’d say so, I just bought a house in Fort Collins, Colorado with 3% down on a conventional loan, which turned out to be around 11k downpayment and $1200 for the inspection and appraisal.. and Colorado is one of the more expensive states to live in in the US. I have my first roommate moving in this weekend, and have already done a number of repairs to the property. I wouldn’t advise you spend your entire savings, but if you live in a cheaper area and look at 3-5% conventional or fha loans, you can probably get into a property. Other factors that will play In is your debt to income ratio and employment history.

If you’re looking for ways to get creative with paying for your first property, you should read The house hacking strategy by Craig Curelop, it’s a bigger pockets book, tons of great info in there on how to house hack and getting the capital to do so if you’re interested.

@Aaron K.

You have to be an annual pro. I just got monthly to evaluate the benefits before commuting to the annual fee. I still have to pay $99 to get the landlord forms.

Hello BP,

I am curious if I can use the Bigger Pockets Landlord forms contracts for each roommate for a house hack? I found my first tenant and I'm trying to get a contract put together that is legitimate for her to sign before moving into one of my bedrooms. Any advice or recommendations on this process would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to pay for the landlord forms and find out that they can't be used for renting a room.

Thanks

@Mindy Jensen Thanks Mindy, that was one thing I found out after making the offer, live and learn lol. I think the value of the 4th bedroom could be a potential increase in rent as a Sfh rental to a family. I think the law is 2 adults and x amount of dependents or two people and not more than one other unrelated person. So the plan is house hacking with two others, and then 1-2 years get my second property and rent this one out.

@Joe Splitrock sounds good, thanks Joe. All these responses have made me start thinking a bit differently. I think I’ll still add the fourth bedroom because it looks like I could potentially get more rent for a 4 bed instead of a 3 bed ( mom, dad, 2 kids?). I plan on buying and holding, I just don’t want to be in the negative. I’m sUre as time goes on and I get more education and experience as well as failures the real estate path will become more clear.

Hello,

I just bought my first property in Fort Collins, Colorado with a 3% down payment conventional loan. I am wondering what kind of strategies I can use to hit that 20% LTV the fastest?

I am going to rent out two of the three bedrooms (house hacking).

I’ve already made a number of cosmetic improvements to the property (garage door opener, replaced the skylight, soon to refinish the hard wood flooring, will paint and refinish the walls, etc)

I plan on adding a 4th bedroom to the basement space. Making the property a 4 bed 2 bath home.

I plan on contributing the max I can along with tenant money to paying down the loan faster outside of my savings and retirement accounts.

What else should I be thinking about? I have about $63k I need to hit that mark and I’d like to get it by end of next year.