All Forum Posts by: Shane Bishop

Thank you all for the feedback and input! We are currently renting the other unit as a midterm rental so I am fine with taking care of the yard to keep it looking nice! Once we move out, we will rent both sides as long term and at that point, we will certainly explore our options. We appreciate all of the input!

Hello,

My wife and I are house hacking in a duplex, but are hoping to move out soon into another duplex that we hope to house hack as well. Currently, we are taking care of the entire yard ourselves, but once we move out, how should we handle the landscaping and yard care (watering, cutting, maintenance)? Is the best solution to hire a company to handle the landscaping or ask the new tenants to handle the lawn care? If the tenants are taking care of the lawn, how do you ensure the tenants are properly caring for the yard?

We would appreciate any feedback or suggestions! Thanks!

Hello,

My wife and I officially closed on our first home/investment property in August and are getting ready to start making our mortgage payments on the house. We are house hacking this home and plan to live in one side of the duplex for roughly 1-2 years and then looking to move out and rent both sides.  My question is, since this is going to be a rental property for us in the long term, is it better to make our mortgage payments monthly or biweekly? I understand that biweekly gives you one extra principle-only payment a year, but if we are looking to save money for our next home, is it better to save that money for a down payment or is it more beneficial to get that one extra payment a year?

Thanks,

Shane

The city did flush the line after several failed tests, but several people we have talked to have suggested doing a filter. 

Hi BP Community,

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first home which is a duplex that we are planning to house hack near Greenville, SC and we are reaching out for help with a situation we are currently facing.  This property is a new build and for the past few months, the water coming into the house has failed the quality tests that are being run by the city water company. The builder had to tie into a water main that had been sitting, with water in it, for about 40 years.  He requested the city to flush the mainline, however they refused.  Consequently, when the water was tested, it failed, and continued to fail after multiple attempts to clean the pipes. The builder has since then ripped up every inch of pipe and laid down all brand new pipe and we still had failing tests. This builder has built a dozen homes in the surrounding area and in that same neighborhood and has never experienced this issue before. 

After flushing the pipes for about a week, the city revealed that we have acquired the two passing tests needed to move forward. The builder had an FHA test done to identify what particles in the water were causing the tests to fail, however that test was done the day before the first passing test was taken. I requested the builder run a second FHA test and am still waiting for the results from the first test and whether or not they are willing to run a second test.

Where my concern comes in, is for the future and for my family. We are scheduled to close on Monday, June 26th and my concern is that if we were to run another test 3 months or 6 months down the road and it fails, that my wife and I would be on the hook, financially, for the repair.  This is our first home and certainly want to cover all of our bases, but we don't know what we don't know and are worried that we aren't protecting ourselves from a potential problem down the road. 

Can anyone provide some advice for us in handling this situation as we move into the closing stages of this process? Any help would be greatly appreciated!   

Thanks,

Shane 

Thank you all so much for the advice! I will run some of these ideas by him and see what he wants to do. 

Hi BP Community,

I have a question from a family member about purchasing a second home and possibly using a HELOC to do it! I, myself, am new to the real estate investment world so I have not looked too much into HELOCs as my wife and I just purchased our first home for a house hack. My dad purchased his home 10 years ago in a nice neighborhood for $220,000 and has roughly $135,000 still to pay. His next door neighbor just sold a smaller, but very comparable home for around $380,000. We were thinking that he could probably sell his home somewhere in the ballpark of around $400,000.

He is currently living near Greenville, SC and is looking to move somewhere along the South Carolina coast. He is debating on whether to sell his current residence or keep it and turn it into a rental property. However, he would need to somehow access his current equity in the home to have enough for a down payment on another home, whether that be through a sale, HELOC, or cash-out refi. What are your thoughts? Reaching out to the community for any and all advice!! We would love your help!

Thank you,

Shane

In this instance, we only put the loan in my name. Since my wife's name is not on that loan, would we be able to get a second FHA loan in her name for our next property, if we decided to do another house hack?

 Thank you for the information!  That is very helpful and certainly something that we will keep our eye on if we start looking to purchase a 3-4 unit property.

We are actually already under contract for a duplex in Taylors, South Carolina using a FHA loan, but just reading different forums and articles, we saw some differing options on which was the better loan strategy to use. The loan officer we have been working with has been awesome so we feel great about the route we have decided to go, but for future deals, we were curious to see what the Bigger Pockets community thought and what their experiences were using these different loan strategies.