All Forum Posts by: Victor So

@Sebastian Hernandez

Hey!

I’m currently on my 3rd househack right now and what type of househack you do really depends on what stage of life you’re in. If you’re single, you obviously have much more choices then when you get married and especially more than when you have kids. It also depends on what market you want to be.

I’m in Chicago, so if I was single, I would get a single family home or multi-unit with as many rooms as possible and rent by the room.

When I got married a couple of years ago, I bought a duplex, rented out the 2nd unit by the room and airbnbed extra rooms in my unit. My wife was okay with that since the extra rooms were located in the front of the unit and our room was located in the back. We had our separate entrances and we didn’t allow our guests to use the kitchen so it was more private for us.

I’m about to close on my 3rd househack and this time we are not going to share spaces with others.

So I guess you should determine which market you want to be in, what type of househack you want to do, and how you want to execute.

I would listen to all of the househacking podcasts out there like “the househacking podcast” “househacking success” “BP real estate podcast” “BP real estate rookie” and etc.

Follow Craig curelop and read his book as well.

And of course ask lots of questions on BP!

Hope this helps!

Hey @Kevin Kong .

Truthfully, I don’t know any good “investor friendly” agents in those areas. My current agent doesn’t invest himself and he doesn’t service those areas. He and I get along and he’s great for me because I give him criteria I’m looking for and responds promptly. That’s how I got my current duplex but I basically ran all the numbers and did the research myself. He did however get me comps very promptly and did misc things I asked him to. 

However, if this is your first property, I would recommend networking and finding an experienced investor friendly agent to help you through the process. 

Maybe we can attend @Brie Schmidt ‘s once a month networking event. 

Hey @Kevin Kong 

So, I think it’ll depend on preference but for me, if you’re choosing a property with extensive rehab then I’d choose the 203k. If you’re selecting a property with minor, cosmetic rehab type of stuff, then I would do conventional and rehab the property myself. 

Also, even if you do a 203k loan, you'll be able to get a relatively low APR. What rates are you looking for? I initially got my 203k loan at 5.1% and I'm refinancing into a conventional loan for 3.99%.

And also, if I were you, I’d househack. The areas you mentioned are great. Network with investor friendly agents who know thOse areas well and grab a good deal! 

@Kevin Kong That is definitely a good point. However, I think there are pros/cons to 203k loans. While 203k loans ensures low down payments and bundles rehab costs into the loan, there are also tons of paperwork to get through for contractors, homeowners, and consultants and the process may take super long depending on the efficiency of everyone involved. 

For example, I just used one to buy my duplex but it took a year for the loan to close. It took 6 months for us to just pull permits - partly due to a difficult municipality where I live, poor guidance by my consultant and contractor, and also my inexperience with the 203k loan in general - and I was finally able to move in 3 months after that. This meant that I had to pay rent where I was staying at temporarily until the rehab finished at my new place and my mortgage for the new place. 

With all this being said, despite the inconvenience and inefficiencies of the 203k loan at times, I still do believe the 203k loan is an excellent way to start out especially if you plan to househack. 

@Mehgan Moore

Hey Meghan,

I've heard of successful condo investors out there but I'd consider a few things - 1) HOA fees 2) Whether or not they allow short term rentals (airbnb, vrbo, etc) 3) whether or not they are prone to charge special assessments and 4) whether or not the HOA board is strict in regards to rehab.

I used to live in/own a condo in a high-rise building in a very popular area on the north side of Chicago, off of the lake, with trendy restaurants and bars nearby. Assessments were high for various reasons among them being we had a doorman working 24/7 and property management and handymen on premise.

The building was also very old so they were constantly raising the fees and slapping on special assessments. The previous owner before me had to pay a 25k special assessment to redo windows and siding on the building.

Despite all of this, I tried to make it work and decided to rehab the property and live in one room while renting out the other. During the rehab process, it was very difficult to get through it because property management would constantly send their handymen to check up on us and they would always point out something they wanted us to change. Some of the requests were reasonable but some were just ridiculous. It was almost like we were being micromanaged. There were many days where my contractor (aka my dad) would get in shouting matches with property management and the handymen.

Nevertheless, the rehab got done and we eventually rented out one of my rooms on airbnb only to find out 2 months later through a letter from the city that my building was on the short term rental prohibited buildings list. Therefore, I had to delist my room.

So, for all of these reasons, I sold my condo and bought a duplex to househack instead.

I hope this doesn’t discourage you from condo investing. But, just wanted to share my experience with you and encourage you to vet thoroughly the condo in which you invest in.

Hope this helps!

@Benjamin Manibog

Hey!

To be honest, I was sort of suckered into joining a similar program a couple of years ago. I went through it all, paid 20k with credit cards, and went to various seminars. Obviously, there were def pros and cons to this.

But personally, I would go with the route in learning and educating yourself on BP through forums, podcasts, webinars, and networking. You can learn everything they teach at those seminars at BP if you take full advantage of the site. And I’m sure you’ll meet some great mentors on BP at various local meetups.

Just my 2 cents.

@Christian Wilson I just bought a multi-family unit to house hack. I used a FHA 203k loan to buy it since the property required some extensive work (electric, plumbing, etc) and wanted to include the cost of rehab into my mortgage. Long story short, it took me 5-6 months just to pull permits due to my city municipality being really difficult and then another 5-6 months for rehab to finish. I didn't not expect (or budget) for this at all.

My advice is to figure out what work you will need to have done and how long the rehab will take. And then save up for a little more than the length of time that the rehab would take.

Or, you can buy a place that doesn’t need much work in order to make your life simpler.

Hope this helps!

@Knoell Palmer Biggerpockets has various calculators in the tools section that lets you calculate pretty much anything! Take advantage of them!

Thank you all for the advice!!

My mother has a condo in the city of Chicago, which is her primary residence. Recently, she stated that she wants to gift me her condo and eventually move into a senior home. As she is getting older in years, she is looking to eventually put all of her assets under me. Her goal is to make sure all of her assets are somehow allocated to me and other family members before she moves into her senior home.

What would be the best way for her to gift me her condo by putting the title and loan under my name?