All Forum Posts by: Sarah Rivero

Hi all,

I have a potential tenant interested in my rental who is a dog trainer. She has 3 dogs personally, and her dog training business consists of training one dog at a time in the home. It sounds like her personal dogs are very well behaved and never have accidents in the home. She also says she is very disciplined with the dog she is currently training (i.e., always keeping them in the same room she is in, taking them outside every 45 minutes, etc.)

Curious what everyone thinks about this situation, and is it worth it? Our pet policy is typically to allow no more than 2 animals. However, as far having multiple dogs in the home, having the owner be a dog trainer seems to be much more ideal than just having a tenant with two pets. She also has agreed to our pet policy of $150 pet fee per animal + $25 monthly pet rent per animal. Thoughts?

Hi All, 

We recently purchased a duplex we're planning on house hacking-- we're going to live in one unit and rent out the other. 

As we begin the process of looking for a tenant to rent the other unit, we're wondering how we should frame the relationship with prospective tenants. Should we tell them up-front we're the owners of the property and that they'll be living next to us or should we try to be more discreet? 

We're planning on making quite a few updates to the property, like putting in patios for each unit, fencing, landscaping, etc. If we don't tell them we're the owner, they might start getting suspicious when they see us making these changes.

The last thing we would want is for them to feel like we're being dishonest landlords, but we also want to maintain some boundaries and make it a little easier to enforce rules if need be.

Thanks for your help!

Appreciate the advice, all! Thanks!

My numbers for the $158/mo cash flow are based on doubling the $1400/mo rent as if both units were rented.

Purchase price is $312k, added budget for renovations in the reno loan is $50k. Estimated monthly costs would be $2642 (including P&I, taxes, insurance, vacancy, and repairs). According to rent comps, unrenovated, the other unit could rent for $1100-1200/mo. My hope after renovations would be to get $1400 or more according to comparable comps.

Hi there, I'm new to real estate investing and would like some advice. Ever since we learned about house hacking, my husband and I have decided that's the route we'd like to take. We've found a duplex and plan to live in one unit while renting out the other. We made an offer on the duplex, which was accepted, and are now in the the due diligence phase.

The house is older and needs some work, so we are getting an FHA 203k loan to renovate the kitchens and bathrooms in each unit. As we've begun the loan process, the numbers have come back higher than I initially anticipated before making the offer. With the new numbers, the cap rate will only be about 6% according to the BP calculator with a positive cash flow of about $158/mo.

The big upside to the property is that it is in an already popular neighborhood with a huge chance for appreciation, as the continuation of a popular walking path will be coming into the neighborhood along with two planned shopping centers, walkable restaurants and a new park. These will all be walking distance from the property.

My hope would be that the chance for appreciation would be enough to make the lower numbers make sense, especially seeing how property values have risen in the surrounding neighborhoods where the walking path is already completed.

My question is, is it worth the gamble to solely rely on future appreciation to make the deal make sense? Are these numbers good enough to make it work, or is this too risky, despite the hopeful future appreciation and the chance to raise rents in the future?

Hi there, I'm new to real estate investing and would like some advice. Ever since we learned about house hacking, my husband and I have decided that's the route we'd like to take.  We've found a duplex and plan to live in one unit while renting out the other. We made an offer on the duplex, which was accepted, and are now in the the due diligence phase. 

The house is older and needs some work, so we are getting an FHA 203k loan to renovate the kitchens and bathrooms in each unit. As we've begun the loan process, the numbers have come back higher than I initially anticipated before making the offer. With the new numbers, the cap rate will only be about 6% according to the BP calculator with a positive cash flow of about $158/mo.

The big upside to the property is that it is in an already popular neighborhood with a huge chance for appreciation, as the continuation of a popular walking path will be coming into the neighborhood along with two planned shopping centers, walkable restaurants and a new park. These will all be walking distance from the property.

My hope would be that the chance for appreciation would be enough to make the lower numbers make sense, especially seeing how property values have risen in the surrounding neighborhoods where the walking path is already completed.

My question is, is it worth the gamble to solely rely on future appreciation to make the deal make sense? Are these numbers good enough to make it work, or is this too risky, despite the hopeful future appreciation and the chance to raise rents in the future?