All Forum Posts by: Victor So

@Kim Tolentino hey! Just Sent you a DM!

@Christian Bernhagen

@Christian Bernhagen

I use a broker for all my deals. All my tenants are on month to month leases and if you screens well they should have no problems with each other. The only time I’ve had issues is when I didn’t screen well.

Airbnb has been great for me. When I can’t find a long-term tenant in between vacancies I rent out the rooms on airbnb and despite covid, I’ve had 90-95% bookings. In fact, covid has actually helped the cause since many of my guests were those who had jobs in the city but due to covid couldn’t go into work. They didn’t want to live in the city so temporarily rented my rooms on airbnb.

Some municipalities are very anti-airbnb (ex. Park ridge) but many support it. So do your due diligence to know who cities allow for airbnb and laws surrounding airbnb. For example, During covid, Chicago didn’t allow 1 day bookings so I had to change all of my bookings to minimum 2 days.

@Christian Bernhagen

Hey Christian,

I had the same issue as you initially when I started out househacking. In addition to everything you’ve mentioned, I couldn’t find a property that I could get enough rents to cover the mortgage. So I had to be a little creative.

I was able to make the numbers work by finding multi-units with bonus rooms or sections that I could potentially rent out. And instead of renting by unit, I rent by rooms.

For example, I currently live in a duplex on the Northwest side of Chicago where I live on the 1st floor and rent by room on the 2nd floor (3 bedrooms). I charge $700 bucks a month per room so I get $2100 bucks total. If I had to rent the entire unit out, I could maybe get 1300-1400. I also rent the rooms in my basement (which has sort of an in law set up) on airbnb. Initially, I thought this would be a lot more work but I have great tenants who barely call me for anything.

Anyways, this is what I did. Hope this helps!

@Katie Balascsak Hey Katie! The FHA (and 203k) loan could be a great way for those with less capital to get into real estate investing. I used it once just to experiment with it and there are definitely pros and cons to it.

The pro is that rehab costs will be built into your loan so you won’t come out of pocket. Also, you’ll have a contractor and consultant to guide you through the process.

However, because of so many people involved, the process often times takes longer for the rehab process to end. And especially if your municipality or city gives you a hard time about something (permits, inspections, etc) it can take even longer because you’ll have to work together with the contractor and consultant to resolve the issue. Also, everyone gets paid out directly by the bank so there’s tons of paperwork and coordinating that goes on between everyone involved to make sure everyone gets paid. And of course, you’ll have to manage the contractors and not all contractors are very engaged and easy to work with.

I’ve heard of very successful 203k loan stories. For me, it took a whole year just for my rehab to finish. Overall, I’m thankful I went through it because I learned a lot. And while I’m not here to scare you, I just want you to be aware of the obstacles you may come across.

@John Moorhouse

Hey,

One option to qualify for a loan at a young age is to have a co-signer (who has a stable income, good credit on the loan, etc) so you can get a low down payment conventional loan (3-5%) that you can househack. (ex. Mom, dad, sister, brother).

@Joshua Schaffner Hey Joshua, along with the advice given above, another option would be to have a co-signer (someone with a stable job, good credit, etc) so that you’d qualify for a low down payment (3-5%) on a property you can househack.

@Blake Bittner Are you looking to go to college? If so, you may not qualify for a loan on your own since your income won’t be high. But if you can have a parent or family member go 50/50 with you, you can buy a property with a fha loan and pay only 3.5% down and then rent out extra rooms!

@Jordan Lepley

Hey Jordan, I've bought all of my duplexes with FHA loans and refinanced into a conventional loan after a year later. You may need to check me on this - but I don't think many lenders will do a 5% conventional on multi-units. I think this applies only for single family homes. So if you wanted to househack a single family home with a 5% conventional, go for it! Otherwise, another option would be to put 3.5% down with a FHA loan on a multi-unit property and if you have money left over, save it for reserves or use it for other investments.

@Brent Knowles

Hey Brent, I had a similar situation on 2 of my duplexes. The way I approached it was that I had my real estate agent structure the contract so that it would be contingent upon the tenants leaving. I had to make sure the tenants were on a month to month lease (or that their lease was up soon) and make sure the sellers have the tenants vacate the property before I closed on the property.

@Drew Flowers

Househack! I wish I did this when I was in college. If I could go back, I would buy a SFH and find roommates to help pay off the mortgage.