All Forum Posts by: Chace Fraser

Hey @Andrew Yenna welcome to BP! Besides surrounding yourself with the right people, the two initial and essential members of your professional team will be a lender and a realtor. These two members of your team can make the process great or terrible. They can make a deal happen when it looks like it’s going to fall apart or they can kill a deal that is on track to close. These two team members will help you fill out your team by leveraging their professional networks (inspectors, lawyers, escrow officers, CPA’s, etc).

Best of luck and let us know how it goes! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Hey @Ely Rojas, congratulations on getting married, closing on your new home, and thank you for being a teacher! I know it can be a thankless job :)

BP is a great place to find people, both virtually and in real life, who are doing the type of investing you are looking to do. You can find local meetups in your area by going to Network>Events up in the menu bar. I’ve found that people in the BP community are incredibly friendly and willing to help.

There are tons of advantages to being a realtor while being an investor. I got my license because I wanted to expedite my learning of going through real estate transactions. I also wanted to learn as much as I could in regards to multi-family investing. After I passed my test I signed on with an investment-minded company that specialized in multi-family properties and owned a property management company.

The best way to find an investment friendly brokerage would be to search people on here who are brokers/agents and ask them to recommend one or two to you (I did this by sending them a private message). Another great way would be to post on the forums who you are and what you're looking for (here's a link to the post for some comic relief). You will certainly want to associate yourself with someone who is excellent at training and doing the types of transactional real estate you want to be involved in.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. 

Hello again @Mason Yost! @David M. has the best advice.

Besides figuring out what your goals are, how you want to get started, and meeting like-minded people, the first action item would be to talk to a lender. In my experience working with house hackers, the majority of the questions center around financing the deal.

When it comes to finding the right lender there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. Lenders, like realtors, are not all created equal. In order of importance, here’s what I think is important to look for in a lender. You want to make sure your lender:

• Has worked with house hackers before; the rules change depending on what loan type you use and how many units you purchase. There are A LOT OF TRAPS along the way that can/will make the deal fall through (and cause you to lose your earnest money). You want to be sure the lender you choose has navigated them before.
• Can help you strategize the lending piece for this purchase AND purchases in the future
• Is an investor themselves
• Can connect you with the other important team members

Best of luck!

@Tyler Fox why not have your cake and eat it too?!?!? Of course it really depends on your situation and what other people may or may not be involved in the decision (significant other for example).

@John Gach's advice of "If you start off with a single family home, and plan to live in it and continue living in it as you buy rentals, that would be harder as you need 20% down for a non-owner occupied rental, and also they’ll probably look at your debt to income ratio, which the single family home would be against your debt to income ratio." IS OUTSTANDING!!!

House hacking is a great way to get into or continue real estate investing. The reason it's so powerful is that you will be buying a property to live in (primary residence) that will also be an investment. Since you will be living in it, the bank will see it as a primary residence and that's the type of loan you will apply for. Because of this, you will be able to get a mortgage with low down payment options (FHA 3.5 percent) and better interest rates. Also, if it's a 2-4 unit multi-family property, the bank will look at how much the unit(s) you will not be living rent for and apply that to your income. This will help you qualify for money enabling you to purchase a larger property.

Hey @Mason Yost, welcome to BiggerPockets! BP is a great place to find people, both virtually and in real life, who are doing the type of investing you are looking to do. You can find local meetups in your area by going to Network>Events up in the menu bar. I’ve found that people in the BP community are incredibly friendly and willing to help.

House hacking is an incredible way to get into buy and hold real estate investing with a relatively low financial barrier to entry… plus the added benefit of reducing housing costs!

Getting your mindset right, setting goals, and creating a strategy are essential first steps to investing in real estate. It's also crucial to surround yourself with the right people.

There are many people that you will need to surround yourself with. To ensure success you will definitely want to associate with like-minded people, people with experience and who are already doing what it is you want to do, and people who inspire you… not naysayers, negative people, nor critics.

Good luck on your journey and feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Hi @Linette Westley, welcome to the BP community, and THANK YOU for your service! Just by joining you are taking the first step to financial freedom.

First off, you will need to decide on your ultimate goal for investing in real estate and then determine how you want to get involved/start. Do you want to be an agent, a buy and hold investor, flipper, wholesaler, etc... You need to figure out a plan on how you plan to attack one or more of those target areas. Next is just sitting down and following that plan to the best of your ability until you have reached your goal.

It's ok if your ultimate goal/plan changes, and it should really. As you experience, grow, and learn more, you'll have a better understanding of how things work and what ventures may be best suited for your personality and lifestyle preferences. However, try to keep on blinders when it comes to shiny object syndrome. Pick one strategy and start with that. After you’ve done a few deals of that type of strategy you can move on.

I think house hacking is a great way to get your feet wet in rental investing, especially if you can find a duplex or so and live in one half and rent out the other half. There is tons of information on the forums and various professionals on this site.

Best of luck and I look forward to hearing how it goes!

Hi @Prem Ananda, welcome to BP and I'm sorry you're having issues. We've used a couple in the past. The one we've had most luck with is Shawn Morgan. If you google his "Shawn Morgan Attorney" he should pop up. I'll also send you his contact info.

@Shane Short you're rocking it and I love the way you're thinking! And as a realtor you have a lot of other benefits working in your favor too (apply your commissions towards your down payment). In all, your situation is pretty unique and I think house hacking would be an awesome start to your investing career. I love the strategy aspect of helping people house hack so if you'd like to jump on a call I'd be happy to. Shoot me a DM and we can make it happen!

@Logan Loughmiller welcome to BP. There are a lot of ways to make your offer look stronger. As @Grant Schroeder mentioned, having your lender contract the listing agent goes a long way. What can really get their attention too is willing to cover part/all of a short appraisal. With prices climbing as quickly as they are (with them anticipated to keep climbing for another 12-18 months) appraisals are coming back low a little more often. Other tactics you're seeing out there are shorter inspection periods, not asking for repairs under $X, larger earnest money, etc. Speak with your realtor to see what they are seeing that is working. If you'd like geek out in more detail I'm happy to chat! I might like to geek out and ask you about your online businesses as well. Send me a DM if interested. 

Hey @Helena Magana! Welcome to bp and congrats on house hacking! There are a lot of local meet-ups. BP is a great place to find people, both virtually and in real life, who are doing the type of investing you are looking to do. You can find local meetups in your area by going to Network>Events up in the menu bar. I’ve found that people in the BP community are incredibly friendly and willing to help.

My favorite local company, hands down, is Investor Lab. The owners @Mike Nuss and @Tyler Combs are phenomenal at what they do. They offer value to anyone who is involved or wants to get involved in investment real estate.