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All Forum Posts by: Nicole Masters

Nicole Masters has started 40 posts and replied 238 times.

Post: Joshua Tree STR purchase (1 - 3 months out!)

Nicole MastersPosted
  • Realtor
  • Sacramento, CA
  • Posts 242
  • Votes 147

Hello friends!

My husband and I purchased our 6 bedroom househack here in the Sacramento CA area in November 2020 and are working toward purchasing a STR in Joshua Tree in the next 1 - 3 months (we just started our 90 intention journal on Sunday!) We have been doing our due diligence on the area nuances and analyzing deals out there on our own.

I'm wondering if anyone owns a property in JT or Yucca Valley and has any advice, tips, or maybe just some things to keep in consideration.

Any advice is welcomed! Thank you in advance for any help :)

Post: Househacking our 6 bedroom house!

Nicole MastersPosted
  • Realtor
  • Sacramento, CA
  • Posts 242
  • Votes 147
Originally posted by @Sarah Lockley:

Thank you for this! I just bought a 5 bedroom and would like to rent out two of the rooms. This is extremely helpful. I would rent out more rooms but I only have 2 full bathrooms and one is the master, so I don't want to have more tenants than bathroom availability if that makes sense. It helps that I now know I don't need to go through an agent to find renters. I appreciate your time sharing this with everyone!

Hi Sarah, congrats on your home purchase! I understand the bathroom to bedroom ratio, that was one of my bigger concerns when first buying the house. We currently have 4 people sharing one bathroom and it can get a bitttt tight. Luckily there's double vanities, but still. And you definitely don't need any help finding renters! I was able to find, qualify, screen, and make the offer on two amazing tenants in a week. Obviously great photos and a detailed upfront description of your property makes a big difference. 

Post: Househacking our 6 bedroom house!

Nicole MastersPosted
  • Realtor
  • Sacramento, CA
  • Posts 242
  • Votes 147
Originally posted by @Mary Smith:

This is amazing @Nicole Masters Thanks for sharing your story!

Thanks for taking the time to read! 

Post: Househacking our 6 bedroom house!

Nicole MastersPosted
  • Realtor
  • Sacramento, CA
  • Posts 242
  • Votes 147
Originally posted by @Joe Splitrock:

@Nicole Masters great success story. I know the kids and animals can be an issue with house hacking. I just wanted to mention for the benefit of others that when you house hack, you are not required to follow fair housing through an owner occupied exclusion. That means you can prohibit kids or animals if they are pets or emotional support (service animals are under ADA, so you would not be able to deny). If you don't live in the property, then you typically need to follow fair housing, so prohibiting kids would be familial discrimination. 

Thank you for the clear explanation, we found some of that through our research before we bought the house. The kid situation all stemmed from trying to help out a buddy (who happened to also have a cat). We already have 2 other cats, and 3 dogs, sooo quite the full household.

Post: Househacking our 6 bedroom house!

Nicole MastersPosted
  • Realtor
  • Sacramento, CA
  • Posts 242
  • Votes 147
Originally posted by @Matthew Swearingen:

How did you find renters. Property management involved to screen tenants?

We knew 4 of the people that moved in from working together in the past, and the other two we found on roomies.com and craigslist. We did the screening ourselves through Avail! 

Post: Househacking our 6 bedroom house!

Nicole MastersPosted
  • Realtor
  • Sacramento, CA
  • Posts 242
  • Votes 147

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Roseville.

Purchase price: $535,000
Cash invested: $45,000

We purchased a 6 bedroom 3 bathroom house in Roseville that we are househacking. We are renting each room and live in the master bedroom. We renovated the upstairs bathroom and made fixture and hardware changes throughout the house. We have a pretty full house of 8 people but are learning great lessons along the way!

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Househacking is the easiest barrier to entry of investing and combines the dream of home ownership with the benefit of having other people cover our mortgage!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We found this deal by looking at Zillow and only looking at properties that had been on the market for 60+ days, and it had poor quality pictures and overgrown front yard, making most people look the other way! Our real estate agent Kyle Renke from the David Greene team helped us negotiate 15k under asking.

How did you finance this deal?

5% down conventional loan

How did you add value to the deal?

We completely renovated the upstairs bathroom, updated all hardware and hinges on doors to a matte black finish, deep cleaned the whole house, bought stainless steel fridge and washer and dryer, updated all the light fixtures and fans, and tamed the front yard.

What was the outcome?

We are collecting $4,160 in rent, which covers our $2,950 mortgage and the $1,000 in utilities/supplies/cleaning service.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The major lesson we've learned is that if we set a standard ahead of time for what type of tenant we want, we need to stick to those standards we set. Such as no pets, no kids, or a certain credit score. These are imperative to keeping the integrity and flow of the house.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

The David Greene team for both our agent and lending! Highly recommend!

Post: Joshua Tree House Hack

Nicole MastersPosted
  • Realtor
  • Sacramento, CA
  • Posts 242
  • Votes 147

Congratulations! I have no advice to give as my husband and I are just now starting our search as well haha, but I wanted to give you props because that's awesome!

Post: Live Networking Mixer - West Sacramento RE Meetup

Nicole MastersPosted
  • Realtor
  • Sacramento, CA
  • Posts 242
  • Votes 147

@Sergey Tkachev We can’t wait to meet you all there! Super excited 😊