Hey guys I am looking to acquire my first property via a house hack. I would prefer to do a value add opportunity and that requires fixing a place up. My question is where should I go, where should I look or who should I ask to learn more about this? I don't have a lot of capital so most of it would be DYI.... is that a good/smart thing to do or should I just hire everything out?

when i started my first live in rehab, I thought I was gonna do it all but quickly realized I was in over my head and called in contractors. luckily I had some cash . I guess it depends on your level of expertise and how big the job is. I would say if you actually have so.e money to spend that you should call a few contractors to get bids and see if they have any ideas that you hadn't thought about. when my contractors came ghat had a bunch of great ideas that i didn't even know were possible that made the house way better if you don't have money, don't waste their time though and just move forward alone as planned.

@Jameson Sullivan Alright hanks for the advice! I like the idea for DIY because that way I will learn how things work and be able to talk to contractors without sounding dumb!

I met @Darian Richardson and @Ryan Davis at a local meet-up. Both have done house-hacks and renovated themselves. Ryan does have a good bit of experience in handy-man work, but I don't think Darian had much (correct me if I'm wrong). The certainly weren't doing major rehabs, but did flooring, painting, bathrooms remodels, etc. from my understanding. I'll let them chime in.

@Michael Guzik

I am currently house hacking a duplex and just finished remolding my kitchen and bathroom. I didn't really have that much experience with remodeling but I had internet so I could look at various videos on the specific project and could follow their directions. I quickly realized that a lot of the work was not as difficult as I thought it would be and the most important thing was just trusting in myself to get started.  

I would say if you don't have a lot of capital, do it yourself is the way to go if your half way handy. Realizing that the first property doesn't have to be perfect but is meant for the momentum of your real estate investor career takes a lot of pressure of the first purchase. 

I hope this was helpful, let me know if you have any other questions. 

@Charles Kennedy Thanks for the connect.

I figure you have a few ways to go about things.  You can watch YouTube and read blogs and do it yourself, as much as you feel confident in.  You can try to find a handyman (maybe on Craigslist) who is willing to walk you through the steps and let you help or even do the project with his guidance so you learn, though I'd still supplement with YouTube to make sure he's not missing something or doing something wrong.  This would work best if you are doing something several times, such as changing faucets.  Let him help you/teach you on one, then you can do the others yourself.  You can also hire it out, as previously mentioned, but to me, that shouldn't be done for many things because as @Darian Richardson mentioned, a lot of the work isn't has hard as you might think.  :-)

Also, here's a thread to give you ideas of things you might want to incorporate in your rehab.  https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/67/topics/516...

Good luck!

@Darian Richardson Thanks for the advice I had a feeling that was the best option to do just wanted to make sure that I wasn't insane for thinking I could do it myself without paying a "professional". 

@Jody Schnurrenberger Thanks for the tips and the link I'll definitely be using some of those ideas!