All Forum Posts by: Noelle Mastelotto

I'll throw you a curveball of an idea. We just moved to coastal Maine from Houston (also sick of the heat). Our version of a house hack is a live in flip + leaving for about 6 weeks in the summer and renting our house out on airbnb/vrbo. July 1 to Aug 15 STR revenue will cover the mortgage for the year provided that we spend that time staying with family and/or on a low-ish budget vacation.

I'm not suggesting you move to this forgotten corner of the country, but look at a solid vacation rental market. One that has strict STR permitting with exceptions for owner occupants would be a bonus. It's also fun to live somewhere scenic and pretty. Like actually pretty...not Texas pretty. I'll report back when it's 11 degrees and the sun sets at 3:45 PM in January, though.

Noelle, Detroit should be high on your list of places to move.

I can speak from personal experience. My wife, (nearly) 1 y/o son, and pup moved from California to Metro Detroit in 2017. 

We proceeded to do a live-in flip and invest heavily in Detroit real estate. We then moved back to California.

Our primary house was purchased for $465,000 and ended up renovating and selling for $765,000. We have 12-doors in Detroit that we still own and self-manage, all of which have gone up in value 2-3x. And they cash flow like crazy.

Detroit prices are appreciating like crazy. In the last 5 years they've doubled (see chart below). 

You could find a pretty decent neighborhood in Detroit to house hack. Nice duplexes in East English Village, Morningside, or University District/Bagley can be had for anywhere between $150k - $250k. Or you could buy a SFH in the suburbs but duplexes in the suburbs will be a fair bit more expensive.

Anyway, I think Detroit is a fantastic place to build wealth now and in the coming years. If you have the flexibility to do it, I'd absolutely go for it!

Hi BP community!

My husband, myself and my four pups are selling our house in Austin metro area and looking to move to a new more affordable market. We've done a few live in flips and are hoping to get into our first house hack cus we're sick of moving so often. Duplex with dogs isn't quite ideal but we're willing to do what we need to do to get closer to financial freedom! Also open to SF BRRR but don't have a lot of cash on hand for renovations this time. We're going to do a midterm rental in Toledo Ohio and explore a few cities. Husband works remote and I'm a hairdresser so I'll need to settle in somewhere and build clients. We're moving with some debt and a small nest egg.

Heres our short list. Hoping maybe someone has some insight if these are good options or maybe we’re missing some other cities! We’re sick of the heat and want to live somewhere with 4 seasons!

Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Detroit, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland/Akron.