All Forum Posts by: Zachary Aldridge

I use Zillow rental manager, it’s free.

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $302,500
Cash invested: $18,500

Contributors:
Ashish Acharya

Bought this triplex with an FHA loan did a very extensive rehab and house hacked it!

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

Great triplex opportunity in metro ATL for my next house hack

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

Found this deal on the MLS. Listed at $315k, offered $300k settled at $302,500.

How did you finance this deal?

Tried using my VA loan to purchase but the VA appraisal came in incredibly low due to having to classify the property as a duplex because the bottom two units were combined and you couldn't access the top unit unless you went outside and up the stairs. No duplex or triplex comps within 10 miles of the property. Deal seemed to be dead but I wasn't giving up. Tried to use an FHA in my name but couldn't since I owned a property within 100 miles. Ended up partnering with my father and used his FHA.

How did you add value to the deal?

10 month compete cosmetic rehab, added a kitchen, added window in cinderblock, siding work, chimney removal, roof patch, roof paint, all 4300sqft needed work and we (my family, friends and I did all of it)

What was the outcome?

Added a stairwell to connect all 3 units together, refinanced it as a "single family" and new appraisal came in at $425k. Original VA appraisal came in at $230k. Refinanced in mine and my wife's name, taking my father out of the deal. As soon as the appraiser left we walled off the 3 units and rented it out as a triplex!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

There’s always a way! Don’t give up. Also I learned I’m not a contractor nor do I want to be 😂 but you’ve got to do what you have to do, especially in the beginning.

If it’s close to the hospital, another great option would be a mid term rental for traveling nurses, doctors and much more. 

@Phillip McDonald @Kerry Baird Thanks so much! My only concern is that we put the stairs in ourselves and they're to code and look great but we didn't pull permits because we live In the house. Im not trying to present an ADU when I go to refinance. Id like to just present it as a single family house because in that case we would have a 10 bed 5 bath single family house with 4000 sqft. Around here, 7 bedroom 4 bath houses with 3000sqft are going for in and around $475000 (Hiram, GA). We bought this place as a duplex for $302500. It did need a considerable amount of work though, so we are doing that now.

Hey there! so I’ve got a bit of a struggle going on in my head right now, and was looking to see if any one, specifically appraisers had any advice out there. The triplex were living in right now we bought as a Duplex 2 months ago because the bottom two units are currently connected (and only one of those two units have a kitchen) and the top unit you have to go outside and up the stairs to get to. Also, the bottom two units share an electrical meter where as the top has its own meter. Water is all shared on the same meter. Because we bought the house as a duplex the value came in very low, somewhere around $70/sqft (because there is no multifamily within 10-15 miles of here) when houses all around us are easily going $150/ sqft. So my thought was if we built stairs connecting the bottom to the top ( so you didn’t have to go outside to get up there.) and converted the full kitchen upstairs to a kitchenette, hopefully when we refinance it will refinance as a single family home (like the previous owners bought it as 3 years ago.) and our value will skyrocket. My only concern is that because it has 2 meters and the house flows more like multi family than single family I might just be wasting a-lot of money. Tax records say that its zoned R3 and from my understanding that means single family or multifamily residential. 

Our end goal is to get refinanced as a SFH giving us a boat load of equity we can then use on a HELOC to go do more deals with and convert the house back into a triplex to house hack. if you took the time to read all this thanks so much!

Yes! I have, he’s a fantastic CPA really helpful and very educated. 10/10 recommend. 

Looking to get a personal loan to help fund a project. I already have a bank in 1st position. Looking for about $30k. Any personal loan recommendations in ATL?

Excited for you! Its hard to come across multi-units especially in ATL so I've actually resulted in house hacking homes with large basements and adding a kitchen, laundry hookups and private entrances to sort of make a duplex (that is if they don't already have those things which is quite common.) Closing off the top from the bottom (taking out stairwells or walling off entrances.) We also got lucky and found a property where the previous owners converted their detached garage into a two story 800 sqft house! so we house hacked that one as well by renting out the main house and living in that one. and when you move they cashflow like crazy! I've got a great investor friendly agent if you need one, he's helped me find my house hacks so let me know if you want that contact and feel free to message me anytime! @Ashish Acharya is also a fantastic CPA in the ATL area if you ever have tax questions, need help filing or need assistance structuring your business the right way!

I recently bought a property in Cobb county Georgia and the property has 2 houses on it under the same address. My wife and I live in one house and I plan on renting out the rooms in the other house. Are the tenants that I rent to covered under the Fair housing act? The reason I ask is because a lady that wants to rent one of the rooms has a service animal and we don’t want any animals in the house.

I close on my first house this Friday and it has a guest house in the back yard. My wife and I plan to live in the guest house and rent the rooms out in the main house. I talked to my insurance company about possibly renting it out and they said in that case they would need to do two separate insurance policies because its two different structures and renters would be in one. I didn't wanna cause problems with my lender so I just went ahead and told them ill consider it later on down the line and insured both houses under one policy. I did do a 0% down navy federal owner occupied loan so technically were still occupying the property but I'm just not sure if they would consider it an investment and want 20% any thoughts? Thanks !