All Forum Posts by: Sung Park

@Kevin Seder I am house hacking a two family property right now. It was the best deal I could find at the time. The In-law suite is rented out to tenants and offsets the majority of the mortgage. My municipal allowed for a rental license so I had no problem with it being legal. My lender did count the potential rent of the in law suite when originating the loan. I was not required to have landlord experience nor an existing lease. Keep looking for a lender who will allow it if you think u won’t have the income alone to get approved.

@James Betts unless you have a license, you wont be allowed access to the MLS. You may be able to work under an agent and have direct access to it. The MLS is one big advantage to being an agent so it doesn’t make sense for it to be accessible to anyone.

@James Betts

@Charles Burton @Alex Deacon you netioned that you are not interested in house hacking but then you are strongly considering it when Alex mentions it. I’m assuming you are interested in house hacking only short term to do a live in flip? If you are looking to flip a duplex while house hacking it, it’s not going to get as much interest and, aruably, appreciation as a single family home. Most buyers of flips are retail buyers who are looking for a SFR. That’s what most flippers focus on to get max demand for their flip. Also, easier to find a SFR that’s undervalued to force appreciate than a duplex because they are plentiful. If you are looking in philly, I suggest reading up on opportunity zones introduced in the recent tax bill. There’s a lot of investors interested in taking advantage of the new tax benefits around it.

@Gilbert Lugo house hacking can really complicate your taxes so I’d recommend talking to a cpa. There’s no tax credits for house hacking but you can deduct passive losses on your earned income if you qualify. You need to have less than 100k in Adjusted gross income to get the max up to 25k in deductible losses or you can qualify as a real estate professional designation. Google it for details as the rules are complex. When your house hacking, basically you have a part of your property that is considered rental property and remaining is primary residence. Rental stuff belongs on schedule e and primary belongs on schedule a. All rent and expenses belong on schedule e to figure out ur passive income/loss. Not all expenses can be deducted fully, irs rules dictate what must be capitalized and depreciated. It’s complicated so you should talk to a cpa to figure this out. Hope this points u in the right direction.

@Brandon Ebeling As others have mentioned, tax assessments do not change due to the sale price of a property once sold. They are separate calculations. Nevertheless, I've noticed that tax assessments can vary widely neighborhood to neighborhood, house to house. This is not just true of Delco but Montgomery county as well.

@Matt Millard @Stephen Thomas I've been thinking of ways to offset my W-2 income as well before year end. My primary focus has been to accelerate any repairs and maintenance jobs to perform this year so I get more passive losses. Also to buy any business equipment or supplies this year as well. Once I exhaust those options, I plan on contributing maximum to my and my wife's IRAs. I've also maxed out HSAs and any flexible spending accounts offered by my employer since the beginning of the year. I'm also looking forward to the increased child tax credit thanks to the new tax bill. The refundable portions of the credit should help me offset my PA state taxes nicely.

@Tony R Fox I've thought about this "streams of income" concept a lot and what I think is most important is that these income streams continue to flow to you regardless of how much time you put into it. Real estate is one of them because the rental income should continue to come in with you doing minimal work. Financial freedom is when the income is generated without you having to spend time earning the income. Focus on those types of income streams and I think you'll be ahead of the game. For example, my plan is to focus on three passive income sources 1) real estate, 2) stock market cap gains and dividends, and 3) online business models such as blogging or Amazon FBA.

@Percy N. Harleysville does not lend within philly county, only outside counties. Conrad is a great guy but the bank is dIffIculty to work with. I recommend joe scorese.

@Alex P. @Cody Whitten 5% conventional has special income eligibility requirements that you may or may not qualify for. It basically depends on your income and the census tract the property is located in. The freddie mac link below provides the details. Not all lenders offer this mortgage product so you need to shop around. Some lenders may not even know about it because they work mostly or exclusively with fannie mae products which don't allow for low down payment on 2-4 unit properties.

http://www.freddiemac.com/homepossible/eligibility.html