All Forum Posts by: Taylor Doyle

Hi Bruno, Welcome! My wife and I house hacked our first investment property. It's been an exciting, frustrating, wonderful, hair-pulling, magical adventure. ;). We love our home, but being engaged in this community earlier would've saved us a lot of heartache, so I applaud you for reaching out as you get started. A few thoughts:

1) I echo @Simon Ashbaugh recommendations. 

2) I'd recommend talking with investment focused real estate agents and finding one that understands the area your interested in.  

3) Get a investment analysis spreadsheet or use the Bigger Pockets Calculators to run numbers on as many properties as you can in your area (try to run calculations on 3-5 buildings per week) to figure out what's a good deal. Talk with your RE agent about properties your interested in and try to visualize the cost, process and time invested. (Especially when you live at your investment, it can be time and attention consuming, but it's an incredible way to learn the ins and outs of real estate investment.)

3) Attending local meet-ups is a great way to make connections and learn. Here are a bunch in the city. https://www.straightupchicagoinvestor.com/chicago-real-estat...

4) And be patient. Depending on your buy box and location, right now is a hard time to find deals with current interest rates (at least in my area), but if you run the numbers regularly, you'll be ready when the right opportunity comes up. 

Good luck and happy to connect and discuss more if you want recommendations on resources or contacts!

I'm a millenial, and I and a number of my friends have done househacking on multi-units as a way into our first properties. At the time, I don't think any of us knew about Bigger Pockets, we just thought it was smart! My wife and I still live in our multi-unit building in Chicago. Over time the property has grown with us as our family has grown (we took over parts of other units to accommodate our work-from-home and new children's needs), so we have able to afford in a more expensive building up front and stay longer in it. 

I encourage all my friends and family to consider it. 

@Jonathan Klemm, Ya it'd be great to discuss. I signed up for your virtual walk-through on Saturday, so looking forward to that!

Ripping the band-aid off is right. I have a much keener (but still developing) eye for when to cut ties. Firing our first contractor was an invaluable experience (well, I guess I could put a value on it, but the ROI is going to be worth it, lol)

 Thanks, @Victor So! Lol, we did go through a lot... So many expensive but highly valuable lessons!

I just used "realestaterocks" and it still works! For either monthly or annual billing.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $520,000
Cash invested: $340,000

This is a House Hack investment property in Uptown Chicago near Andersonville. My wife and I live on the 2nd floor and rent out the first floor. We have been repairing various aspects of the building since 2019. We gut renovated the entire 1st floor, the 2nd floor kitchen and bath and turned the basement into a Garden Unit. It's been a long journey (fired our first GC, GC'd it ourselves, then hired another GC) and we've learned a lot from the experience.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We wanted to have passive income from rental properties. We also were looking for a condo, but found them all to be very expensive. This building was in the location we wanted and we were excited about the idea of being able to remodel it while making income from the rental.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Searched on Redfin and our Realtors listings. There were several interested buyers. We offered $5k over any other buyer's asking price up to $520k (with proof of verified offer).

How did you finance this deal?

15% down and 30 year Mortgage

How did you add value to the deal?

Nearly gut renovated the entire thing over 5 years

What was the outcome?

We still live here as of 2024! We love the space. It cost way more than we budgeted for. We found out a year ago that we were having a baby and we were able to make a new opening in the first floor so that we could expand into it and use both floors for ourselves. We are preparing to rent out the newly renovated garden unit.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Vet your contractors better and don't let positive past performance excuse current poor performance. Our first contractor in retrospect was not great. They were fast and cheap, but the quality wasn't always there and they were a mess. It got worse over time, since the contractor lost a few key team members and we should've let him go then.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Elizabeth Amidon, Lorenzo with Archetype Construction