All Forum Posts by: Zach L.

Thanks all!

@Will Kenner best of luck to you finding your answer! In California, it looks like the rent assistance program does provide assistance for tenants that have since moved out, so hopefully it's a similar scenario in Washington for you.

@David P. Housing is Key has been relatively easy to deal with for a government agency. We have a handful of tenants who have applied for some amount of aid and it has been a pretty smooth process. If you have any questions about it feel free to send me a message and I'd be happy to help anyway I can!

One of our tenants in Los Angeles has not paid rent since the beginning of the pandemic, and was recently approved for rent assistance through CA's Housing Is Key program. This program has an 18 month cap on rent assistance, and the tenant has more than 18 months of outstanding rent.

I'm curious if anyone else has found themselves in a similar scenario and what options/solutions they have came across.

Thanks!

Thanks all! Sounds like I should do some research on property management software to see which one may be the best fit. I appreciate the thoughts!

I help manage around 160 units, and we recently needed to create notices alerting tenants to changes in the fees they pay along with their rent. 

Each notice needed information unique to the tenant (their name, address, rent amount without the fees, and their new monthly payment amount with the new fees). I'm embarrassed to admit I did most of the work manually, which took way longer than it should (many hours of copying and pasting spread out over multiple days). How do y'all generate notices with unique information for each tenant while also not consuming a ton of time? I imagine a mail merge is an option, but is there anything else that may be better?

Thanks!

@Leland Smith

The main thing that comes to mind is to ask for references. Call the references to see if the GC stayed on timeline and budget, find out any complaints the references may have, and if you can go look at previous similar projects they've done then do it!

Assuming the references come directly from the GC, take what they say with a grain of salt since they're likely only going to give you their biggest cheerleaders, but you may be surprised by what you learn.

Hey Carrie,

I know this isn't the exact answer you're looking for, but if you end up needing to keep searching for furniture, my favorite app for that is called Freebie Alerts. It compiles all of the free stuff listed on various marketplace apps and some of the stuff listed is really nice! It can take patience sometimes, but I've gotten at least a thousand dollars worth of nice furniture for free using the app over the past year.

Best of luck!

Hey Stephanie,

I'm currently doing the same thing you're looking to do - I'm about ~7 months into a house hack in a duplex about 3 miles south of USC.

Overall there's so much you'll learn along the way, and everyone else has already provided great advice, just keep moving forward. I know you're not at this point yet, but my main mistake was overpricing the unit I had for rent, which led to an extended vacancy and a lot of wasted time showing the unit to people who didn't apply (and countless hours replying to Facebook messages asking if it's still available). Eventually I lowered the rent and got a great tenant, but it could have gone so much smoother.

Also, when I was buying the property, the fantastic realtor I was working with negotiated to get the duplex delivered vacant, so it's definitely not unheard of if you have a great team to work with (I definitely understand it may have been much easier 7 months ago though 😅). Find a realtor who is doing/has done what you're trying to do - this made me feel so much more comfortable throughout the buying experience (and after).

Overall, I'm here if you have any questions! I'm by no means an expert but happy to help in anyway I can!

 Hey Sophie! 

I'd love to know if you've thought more about this (whether to go for a second house hack ASAP or not) and come to any conclusions over the past few months. I found this post while going back and forth on this question myself and would love to know any thoughts or conclusions you landed on! 

Personally I am on my first house hack in South LA, and while I know I likely won't cash flow if I move out at the one year point, I see value in owning rental property in LA in the long run, and I have a good savings rate and reserves, so I'm leaning toward the idea of getting a second house hack ASAP but haven't landed on a decision. Thanks!

Hi Steven,

Sounds like a great opportunity! I sent you an email with some background on me, why I'd love to help you and the team, and my resume. Looking forward to hopefully hearing more about your business and how I can potentially help!

Thanks so much,

Zach

@Robert Faragalla

I just quickly Googled it (so I'm sure this won't explain everything), but it looks like you need the below:

FICO® score at least 580 = 3.5% down payment.

FICO® score between 500 and 579 = 10% down payment.

Debt-to-Income Ratio < 43%.

The home must be the borrower's primary residence.

Borrower must have steady income and proof of employment.

For the steady income/employment, I've heard they look for 2 years of steady employment history, however I've also heard that time spent in college can apply to that 2 years. It could be good to talk to a lender to see if you can get pre-approved, or they can let you know what is keeping you from getting to the price point you want to be in, so you'd know exactly what you need to work on. Make sure you go with a lender who understands house hacking/investors!