All Forum Posts by: Matthew Brill

That's the ultimate goal! Refinance into a conventional loan and get the FHA to use again. But realize when you refinance, if you get another owner occupant loan you will be signing that you intend to live there for 1 year.

@Ryan Rochefort

I have done 2 house hacks in palm beach county. I am not a realtor but happy to talk it over. I also know a local investor friendly realtor that has helped me and some friends buy. He's not on BP but happy to set you up if interested.

I also have been to and recommend the Delray meetup with @Jon Huber!

I think it's fine to have a partnership, just with tenants and not friends. Their plan vs a house hack is essentially the same thing. Just in a house hack you are the only one getting a loan and title. But from then on, the tenant is your partner splitting the expenses every month. And they are contractually obligated to do it!

Getting started with a house hack is a great first acquisition and introduction to investing. You'll get to both live in it and get income to reduce your expenses. Then when you move out it's a performing asset. My biggest regret with house hacking is not doing it sooner and every time I moved! 

@Joe Black

If you are looking at a rentometer report, I would underwrite based off of the low end of the estimate, not the average or median. It would also be worthwhile to look at other properties for rent in the vicinity. Do they have similar parking issues? Do they have on-site laundry? Are they multifamilies? The further you get from what is standard for the market there the more you will have to account for that in rents. Also keep in mind that whenever you do go to sell it you will have similar issues finding a buyer.

@Thomas Rodgers

No problem. I think your plan of attack sounds good. I would go for the 3.5% over the 20%. 5% is also a great option because you can get a conventional loan. But that will be for a SFR, not multifamily.

You can bring extra cash to close, walk away, or challenge the appraisal. You can ask them to split the difference between contract and appraisal price.

The question is what will the house ultimately rent for given the quarks? Those are things rentometer and other data services won't take into effect. If there is a nonconforming unit there is also a potential issue with the that may come up with title. Or will it be grandfathered in? It's not a no for me but it I would be taking a real close look and be extra conservative in my underwriting.

I am an analytic person so I always look to the numbers first. If you have your cash now where is it sitting, what return is it getting you, and what is your comfort level with it? I would start looking for a multifamily now and compare the ROI and your perceived risk to that of what your money is doing now. If that's a sizable delta then I'd go for the multifamily now. 2 years could be a significant opportunity cost and also time that you could save up more money (and only need a 3.5% down payment on a house hack).

It is not easy to keep it under wraps, especially if they are a savvy tenant (and just look at the property appraiser site). I have had property managers do the all the management for me. My experience has been that the inherited tenants easily found out that I was the owner, but then tenants that were placed after I was living there had no idea. I will also say that even the tenants that knew I was the owner never bothered me and always went through the property manager.