All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Taggart

@Will Moses I would try and get a 3-4 unit building if you can. More bang for your buck and duplexes are getting tougher to live for free in nowadays. Side by side is preferred over up/down. Generally will want to stick to closer to the city to get the most upside in appreciation and rent growth over time.

House hacks being lower down payment I would lean towards nicer areas on those to best utilize the owner occupied financing and get into something you otherwise wouldn't have been able to if you needed 20-25% down like a regular investor mortgage. At least in today's market where the cash flow gap between the lower end and higher end areas has shrunk compared to what it used to be so you will want to focus more on appreciation/rent growth and loan paydown on the house hacks IMO. Get into a nicer property/area for not much more out of pocket from an absolute dollar standpoint when you are only putting 3.5-5% down. 

@Will Moses House hacking is the best way to get started hands down. I've done it 7 times myself and it's a huge spring board to achieving FI at an early age if you do it throughout your 20's. I would do 1 per year and then hold onto each as a rental after moving out. A great way to build a decent sized portfolio without needing a ton of cash out of pocket plus you are enabling yourself to live for free that whole time which allows you to stack money even quicker in addition to whatever you do for active income. 

I think the best approach for house hacking nowadays is buying the most expensive 3-4 unit building you can that still at least breaks even as a long term rental from day 1. That'll give you the highest overall ROI for your money since you are putting such little down.

@Pantelis Pantelides Where is the property located and is it a single family home or apartment?

@Jason Milko Ya I would maybe just do a smaller rent bump to slightly below market then for now. Enough to make a difference but not drive them out and have to deal with the turnover if you would prefer not to right now. 

@Jason Milko Do either of the units need rehabbed if the tenants leave? I'd say it depends on your cash position and willingness to deal with a turnover if they were to leave. Obviously the higher the rent increase, the higher likelihood of them leaving. I tend to do decent sized but nothing crazy rent bumps until the inherited tenants are up to market rents to avoid having a bunch of vacancies right after closing, especially if the units need rehabbed. 

@Nathan Jackson Pittsburgh is a great market for house hacking. I've done it here 7 times myself. You can still buy a 3-4 unit in a decent area with a 3.5-5% down mortgage and live for free and sometimes even make money while living there. I always recommend getting the full sellers assist to limit your out of pocket cost. Mckeesport and Middle Hill can be a bit gritty as far as living there goes, Coraopolis is generally solid and a great up and coming neighborhood that I am a fan of given it's location right where multiple major highways meet and close proximity to downtown and the airport. 

I probably wouldn't house hack in Oil City since you likely won't really see much appreciation or rent growth long term there being so far from the major job centers here. I tend to prefer going for 3-4 units in nicer ish areas on the house hacks since 3.5-5% down of say $500k isn't really that much more than 3.5-5% down of $200k from an absolute dollar amount but you get so much more wealth creation with the $500k property. 

@Radovan Matusovich congrats on the first purchase! I think Westwood is still an undervalued neighborhood here. Little bit slept on. Great quiet residential neighborhood in the city.

If you want to continue to invest in Pittsburgh with $200k that's plenty to work with. I would probably get into single family BRRRR deals or house flips, with the eventual goal to turn that equity into down payments for multi family that you can buy and hold long term. If you want something a little more turnkey I tend to prefer just buying multi family from the start here since they have better rent/price ratios compared to single family homes. Single family are good for doing value add though and getting chunks of equity with especially when you have a lump sum like that to deploy. Just have to be okay with the rehab side of things but the opportunity is there with all the old run down houses we have waiting to be fixed up.

@Steven Le Yessir it's a great market. Price points, neighborhoods, and property types that work for really any strategy so you can diversify your portfolio within the same market which is nice. I've been investing here since 2016. 

Yeah that one's pricey for Brookline. They are being a bit too ambitious with the asking price. You can still manage to hit the 1% rule in Brookline (not sure how much longer this will last) so wouldn't make sense to dip much below that right now there IMO. I am a fan of the neighborhood though solid B class area close to downtown and has a walkable business district.  

@Chris Mclaughlin Pittsburgh is cool. Good supply of multis ranging from about 60-125k/unit depending on bedroom counts and quality of the building/area. 1-1.5% rent/price ratios in decent neighborhoods for turnkey/close to turnkey. Can get above 1.5% but probably not in areas I would recommend being out of state having to rely on third party management. We just helped an out of state client buy a nice brick 4plex with 2BR units renting at $900 each for $250k to give you an idea of what would be considered a solid cash flow deal here. That was in a nicer pocket of a C class neighborhood.