All Forum Posts by: Mathew Fuller

What are your favorite book(s) that you can credit to your real estate investing career?

Hello BP,

Wondering what kind of ROI you guys get from putting in new laminate / hardwood flooring on your properties? I'm looking to close on a property that has a pretty rough and old hardwood floor that I want to replace. How much of an ROI should I anticipate, what variables should I consider when choosing a type of flooring?

Thanks

@James Orr

Thanks a lot James. This is exactly what I was looking for. Enjoy your weekend

@Ben Feder

I have no debt and consistent employment which I'm sure helped, i'm not saying no money down is the way to go to rush in and get into a property, for some it may make sense, for me it made more sense to wait and save up money for a conventional loan.

If you don't have any money I would suggest finding ways of making more money first before getting into a property. In my opinion at the very least since whatever property you get you should be able to cover 100% of the expenses and some, while also being able to save. It doesn't make sense to rush into a property with a high interest rate no money down loan while having no money saved up, and scrambling to find tenants / relying on credit cards. Maybe a no money down makes more sense if you have 10-20k saved up and you want to preserve your capital instead of putting it into equity of your property in the form of a down payment. Just know the conditions and terms of the loan you're getting into. In the mean time while you save it definitely doesn't hurt to talk to an agent and a lender and get a plan in place and discuss what needs to be done \ how much you will need to save / put down if you want to buy a property for x amount. 

Any BP / REI meet ups in Fort Collins or surrounding area?

Hey Ben,

I'm closing on my very first property this week in Fort Collins, Colorado. I can relate by not having much money to get started, I was broke in the beginning of 2019.. I moved to Colorado about three years ago during this crazy market and being naive I just talked myself out of buying a house because it was "too expensive" and "didn't make any financial sense", and chose the cheaper route of renting an apartment by myself (or so I thought was the cheaper route). I never bothered to speak to an agent to see what I could potentially get.. Fortunately with almost no money saved at the time I got in touch with an agent earlier this year and found out I qualified for a no money down loan, which at least got me set up looking at houses around Denver and I could start to picture what I wanted, I also read Scott Trench's Set For Life which is a fantastic book and introduced me to the concept of House Hacking and also the potential power of owning a property. After looking over the no money down terms and also talking to some other folks, I decided to save and go the conventional loan route with 3.5% down.  All this year I analyzed and read books, but still felt like I didn't know what I was looking at or some deals were just far out of reach, so I didn't make any decisions for 6-7 months. I finally told myself in October that i'm just going to throw myself in and buy a house, and whatever happens happens, I just want to learn and the best way to learn is just by throwing yourself in sometimes, knowing you're going to make some mistakes / have some hard times, but also come out with the knowledge to go into more deals in the future.

For my first house with my 0% of experience, I asked my agent to find me properties that fit the following criteria

- Under market value
- Houses that are livable but need some work, this is so that I can get my feet wet with with redoing walls, hardwood floor, painting, replacing utilities, landscaping, etc, but also not have an issue living there or having people come over.
- At least 3 bedrooms and 2 baths - This is so I can rent out the 2 bedrooms and cover most of my mortgage, and gain experience managing tenants.
- A place that I'd like to live, near the mountains.
- No HOA

From what I gather from your posts i'd say look into house hacking, it allows you to get a cheaper down payment for a loan since you'll be living on the property, and can get you into the market quicker. My goal is to eventually get into the multi family space, but with my cash and knowledge I decided to start smaller and get some experience. I think I briefly looked into duplexs, but they're pretty expensive in Colorado from what I saw, however, I think you can qualifier for a higher loan on multi families if you count potential earned income from renting, not 100% sure you would have to check with lender on that.

If you don't know what you can qualify for or how much you need for a down payment, go talk with some lenders. I had hardly any money saved and still got approved for 400-450k, but decided to wait and save my money through the year, because it's smart to have a pillow saved for emergencies built up and other expenses, regardless if you're getting into a property or not. 

There are plenty of agents / lenders that are real estate investors that are on BP that i'm sure can help you get started and answer any questions that you may have.

Hopefully some of that helped, everyone starts from the bottom either financially or experience wise, and for some of us it's both, but as long as you make it a priority, you can make it happen sooner than you think.

Hello BP,

Currently under contract for my first SFH / attempt at house hacking. My objective was to find a place / location that I would enjoy to live, that had the potential to house hack, and a property that needed some minor work for me to gain experience in renovating / build equity, but also something that was livable starting day 1.

The home has no HOA. It's a 3 bed 2 bath SF home with a fully finished basement.

The first task that I believe can build equity is re-doing the up stairs flooring, replacing the hard wood floors with new laminate flooring. The cracked bathroom tile with new tiling, etc.

The second task is the basement has a large bedroom with a full bath, and then a long space that's adjacent to those rooms is finished but doesn't really conform nicely due to the length of the space. I was thinking about dividing the space in half and adding an extra bedroom in the basement, and leaving the other half as "basement space" (couch, tv, hangout, etc). Have you guys had experience adding additional rooms to increase the value of the property, along with lessons learned along the way?

What other methods should I be looking for to increase the value of the property other than appreciation over the next few years holding?

Thanks

Planning to start my first house hack in the next month or so by renting out the bedrooms. What are some of your favorite methods of finding good tenants or room mates in your rentals?

@Patrick Soukup

Thanks Patrick, long term rentals it is. May be a good thing for me to get acquainted with anyways just starting out.

@John T.

Hey john,

Thanks for the heads up, I have already read the zoning law for unrelated people in a single residence and it’s no more than 3 unrelated people, so I’m clear on that, but thanks for the heads up!