All Forum Posts by: Travis Provin

I would suggest getting a quote from a structural engineer and then another quote from a foundation company. I ran into a similar issue with my home. Foundation company quoted me six piers for $17k. A structural engineer quoted me one and another foundation company did it for $2,800.

If you are going to sell it in a few years and the cracks were not alarming when you purchased it recently I doubt much will change in 2 or 3 years to warrant spending any money on it. But, you really need an engineers quote and another foundation companies quote.

As a newbie investor and first time homeowner who has been operating a single family home rent by the room house hack for last three months I have to agree with what everyone above has said. Househack is for sure the best way to get started. Not only does it teach you about purchasing a home, home ownership and maintenance, but you also get experience with tenants, leases, repairs, basically everything that goes into real estate investing all while living in your own home.

My number one piece of advice is to raise more capital because buying a property, furnishing it, and maintaining it is expensive!!! You'll spend more money than you thought and you'll be glad to have some extra in reserve, I sure was.

Can you share an example analysis you have run? There are of course cash flowing rentals to be had but the Greenville NC market you are looking at might just be harder than others. In today's market you are likely going to have to negotiate on purchase price and obtain seller credits to make a deal work. Properties that need renovations or have been on the market for a while will likely be owned by sellers that are willing to negotiate. It's not all about their list price, offer them the number that makes your rental deal work.

Hello,

I'm a rookie real estate investor currently house hacking in the greater Asheville NC area looking to purchase a mid or long term rental property in a nearby area. Being about an hour away from Greenville (and hearing great things from friends who have lived there in the past) I am curious how the market is looking. Seems like manufacturing, tech, and healthcare are the big employers in the area and a quick search of Greenville proper seems like there are a lot of properties for rent (although I could be misjudging what "a lot" looks like).

For anyone investing in the greater Greenville area, what is working? STR? Medium Term Rental? Fix and flip? Is it possible to create a cash flowing property in today's market?

Hi Chase, I am in Fletcher, south of Asheville, renting two rooms in a 1900 sq ft 3b/2ba house. Not as big of a property as you are looking at and not in such a trendy area but I was blown away by the demand for a single room rental. It seems there are plenty of people in this area that need short and mid-term housing.

I would suggest checking roomies.com and furnishedfinder.com for available rooms in the area you are looking to purchase. That should provide a starting point for what you can expect to charge for rent for each room.

Thanks for the replies guys. As much as I want to make a househack like this work the numbers just aren't adding up. Putting that cash elsewhere is a better deal.

I just purchased my first 3 bed 2 bath home with the intention of finishing out the walk out basement as a private fully furnished 2 bed 1 bath + full kitchen apartment. I am trying to determine if the numbers make sense to continue with this idea. I ran a few different scenarios into Craig Curelop's House Hacking Deal Analysis calculator but I'm looking for a bit more info than what that calculator is providing before continuing on.

When I purchased the home I had set aside $60,000 in cash to do the renovations. After getting a few more quotes my number was low and I am now looking at $80 - $100k in renovations. The research I have done makes me confident the rental can produce at least $25 -$30k in revenue each year. My questions are:

1. What is the most accurate way of determining the ARV of adding two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen? A big piece of this plan is doing a cash out refinance in a few years after the rental has been up and running for a bit but I'm not sure the best way to get an accurate ARV to understand how much equity I will have in the home once the renovations are complete.

2. Considering I may need to put $100k of cash into this does it still make sense to do this or would using that cash to purchase a separate rental property make more sense? I am leaning towards the house hack because although the upfront cash price is high the low risk, simplicity of managing a property I live in, and the ability to cash our refinance are big positives over just purchasing a separate rental.

3. What is the best way to pay for the renovations? Assuming $100k for the renovations I have a $40k gap to make up. The easiest option is to wait and save my own cash but that will take about a year. Would a renovation loan make sense in this scenario? Or some other way?

Hello,

I'm having some trouble deciding which path I'd like to take on purchasing my first home. I had been planning to do a basement househack and in the area I am living it that would mean purchasing a house with an unfinished basement, spending $50k (a rough estimate) to finish it, and renting it out on Airbnb for about $1,500 per month. On the flip side of things, I can purchase a smaller house without a basement just for my fiance and I for about $80k - $100k less than something larger with a basement and keep my $50k to acquire another property. 

I am wondering if anyone has any opinions on choosing one versus another. Duplex's and triplex's are not popular in this area so the classic househack option is out. 

The pro's to purchasing a larger home with a basement and finishing it would mean a single mortgage and income coming in from the househack. The con's are that my mortgage will be more expensive (but very easily paid for with my income) and I will have to dump a lot of cash into the house.

The pro's to purchasing a house without a basement means I don't dump all my cash and can acquire another property but now I'm dealing with two mortgages (also very easy for my fiance and I to cover with our income) and a timeline to get the home up and running quickly as a STR, MTR, or LTR. It would also mean that I have two properties to work with in terms of building equity instead of just one.

Does anyone here have experience buying properties with buried, out of use oil tanks? I'm looking to purchase my first home to run as a househack and I am seeing a lot of properties in the western North Carolina area that have buried oil tanks. A lot of them are no longer in use but the tank is still present. Everything I have read on Bigger Pockets has me saying oil tanks are a hard NO and I ignore the property no matter what but with them being so common in this area I'm wondering if anyone on here has any experience. Seems like the most common approach is to include a contingency that the seller disposes of the tank and provides a clean bill of health on the soil.

I am in the market for a house with either a finished or unfinished basement that I can remodel into a small apartment to househack. One thing I am struggling with is pricing out the renovations. It's one thing to price out replacing cabinets or countertops, renovating a bathroom, but it feels like a whole different beast when trying to estimate and price out finishing a basement. I am finding it difficult to run the numbers and back into an offer price I am confident in.

How does one go about doing this? I am looking at a few properties that have unfinished basements with plumbing for a utility sink already run. I would need to hire an architect and contractor to design the layout of the space, frame and insulate the walls, run electrical, run plumbing, and install egress windows. I am hoping to be able to do some of the more basic things myself like base cabinets, wall cabinets, counters and appliances for a small kitchen. Also drywall, flooring, drop ceiling, and trim myself too.

I am a first time homebuyer and at a loss to try and price out this type of work but I am in a market where I do not have the time to schedule an inspection or general contractor walk through without missing an offer deadline. Any information I am finding online is varying wildly.

How do people go about doing this?