All Forum Posts by: Warren Juall

Tuesday March 10th is the International Day of Awesomeness. Bring your awesomeness to our monthly meetup in Seymour to network and mingle with other like-minded Naugatuck Vallyites.

Please let us know with a "Yes" between now and the 9th if you'll be attending.

Please join us the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 6PM for the Valley Meetup at Olives and Oil in Set! This is a casual gathering where you can mingle with other people in our industry. We hope to see you there to network, share knowledge, and learn!

Hi All - Does anyone have a good roofer in the North Haven area? Any recommendations would be appreciated!

@Spencer Cornelia Those are some awesome numbers!

In 2017, I had a similar mindset. I wanted to offset as many of my expenses as possible. I purchased a 3-family for $295K in CT using FHA. Had to put little money down and almost no repairs as the house was renovated in 2015 (although I did some painting myself).

The unique part of this purchase was that 1 of the 3 units was being rented by room. The 3 Units consist of a 5-br 2-bth apartment and two 1-br 1-bth apartments. The 5 bedroom was fully rented at closing, and landlord was paying all utilities + cable and internet. 

Anyways, here are numbers on average over 14 months as they can change month to month. 

INCOME

Room Rentals (average over 14 months): $3,835

1 Bedroom: $800

Total Income: $4,635

EXPENSES

PITI + PMI: $2122

Cable, internet, gas, electric, water,  water & sewer tax (average over 14 months): $832.50

Total Expenses:$2,954.50

Net: $1,680.50

This is also with me living in the larger 1 bedroom apartment, which when I leave, I'll be able to rent for an additional $1,000/month.

Although these numbers are actual and don't consider budgeting for vacancy, CapEx, Maintenance and the like, House Hacking is a hell of a thing! Definitely works if you run your numbers right.

@Derek Sperzel Definitely a time to consider becoming more liquid! Not sure how this will all pan out or if we're at the top yet, but history tells us something has to happen. 

Anyways, couple things to consider on what you mentioned. 

1.) If you're able to get 90% LTV HELOC, would that change anything if you paid down your mortgage? Don't you still have access to 90% of your home's value and plus the 195K in cash?

2.) If there is a market crash, you might not be able to get that 90% LTV HELOC. Also, your home's value would decline with the market, so you'd have access to that much less.

You would however accomplish not paying interest on your mortgage. But I think there could be some other, safer ways to invest that 195K if you're not going right back into another flip or BRRRR.

Best, 

@Thomas Kareeparampil As an investor myself, I prefer working with other investors as they share similar mindset. 

Feel free to reach out and we can work something out that makes sense for both of us. 

Best, 

@Ari Bildner If you're renting by room individually (meaning you're listing each room and filling each room separately), then I'd definitely include all utilities including internet and maybe cable. It would be a pain to individually bill the tenants afterwards and if they don't come as a group who know each other, it can create conflict if they're handling themselves. You just have to factor that into rent. I rent out a 5-bedroom unit for $3250 total with 5 leases but I have to pay up to $800/month for their utilities.  

If you're renting to a group of students who know each other, then you should have them pay their utilities. But in that case, you'd probably just have one lease signed with all their names (and co-signers if necessary). 

If you're advertising it as one space, then definitely make tenant pay utilities. 

To answer your question, I'm just not sure how you're marketing it. I would try to avoid lowering your rent below market if at all possible. 

@Ari Bildner Yeah, I'd suggest not advertising a 1-year lease for room rentals. Try month to month for room rentals or a 1-year for the full house rental. 

How's your pricing for rooms? Have you made sure it fits the market? Are you offering to include all utilities? That's a must in my opinion for room rentals. Just factor that cost into the price of rent. 

@Ari Bildner - Who are you marketing to? I would think you should either go for all students or no students at all. Once you get non-students in your rental, it might be tough to find students wanting to commingle there. If you're going for students only, you might have missed the mark. Late summer is the best time for that. 

I rent out rooms to non-students in Shelton, CT. I only advertise on Craigslist and have almost no issues finding qualifying tenants. I offer month to month leases as room rentals tend to attract short term renters, although most tend to stay for a while. 

Have you tried advertising it as a 1-year lease single family rental? Might be worth giving that a shot too.  

If you're only wanting to focus on students, you might be able to reach out to CCSU and let them know you're offering student housing. Also can put up flyers on campus. 

Good luck!

@Kerry Arm

It's possible to get 20%, but in most cases if the lender sees the purchase as strictly an investment property, they'll look for 25%+. 

As to the 2nd question, in what context did they ask? Seems like an odd suggestion from a seller.