All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Garcia

@Michael Dumler This helped a lot! Thanks Michael!

I’m currently looking for a House Hack in Los Angeles. I’m planning on doing a rent by the room strategy, and am on the hunt for 3+ bed / 1.25+ bath single family homes.

I haven’t had much luck finding a house hack with that criteria since this market has made most sellers strongly preferring cash offers or $10k above asking price.

I've been trying to broaden my search by looking into townhomes/condos, but am not sure how I can go about renting by the room in this situation. What sort of rules/regulations are there with having an HOA? Are there certain things I can't do vs owning my own home?

@Sebastian Marroquin Sounds like the BRRRR strategy to me! I'll definitely need to do research in regards to adding an ADU or new bathroom but I'm always up for a challenge. I have some family who can do contractor type of work so hoping I would be able to use their skills to help out.

If you come across any deals that look like this, lemme know and I’ll run the numbers!

@Tony Kim Definitely a solid piece of advice. I’ve been told by many real estate gurus to just wait right now also for the very same reasons. I can’t wait till mortgage rates go up, hopefully this will bring down house prices & cause a bit of a slowdown in the house bidding. Then us Millennials could finally buy a house 🤣

@Jon Schwartz

Jon, thank you for the awesome reply. I haven't looked into Townhouses because I was a little intimidated I wouldn't budget correctly with the HOA fees, get interested enough tenants and run into a few snags with parking. But I'll dig more into this area most definitely!

If you find any awesome house hacking listings in LA, feel free to shoot them my way you know I’ll definitely check them out :)

I’m looking to House Hack a Single Family Home in Southern California near a college campus (Los Angeles and surrounding area within 30 mile radius).

I’m a single 25 year old, have about $30K in liquid cash reserves to work with that I’m comfortable with spending and have a stable income.

The elephant in the room is Los Angeles prices and the surrounding area range from $400K - $2 Million. I’m definitely no Kylie Jenner-baller, so I’m staying out of the main city and have come across some potentially good 3 bedroom houses for $440K-ish deals.

Im planning on going with the CalPLUS Conventional Loan Program that allows me to put down 3% and I can wrap my closing costs into a silent 2nd loan that grows interest free.

The problem is I keep getting outbid. There’s always that baby boomer near retirement that raises the purchase price up by $30K-$60K and it’s something I can’t compete with.

Am I doing something wrong? Any area I can improve?

Second question, once I get the single family I technically won’t live for free. Max I can rent out the rooms is about $700-$900 each and that’s only covering about 2/3’s the total monthly expenses. Should I look for a distressed single family and do a house-hack live-in flip after a few years?

Sorry for the multi-question and slightly length post! Btw, I’m open to hearing what you guys would do in my situation. I’m always a student at heart and I definitely am a guppy in shark infested waters.