New to Real Estate · Northern Virginia · Member since 2020 · 20 posts · 14 votes
Hello everyone! New to the BiggerPockets community and nervous/excited to get started!
I am looking to buy a single family or townhouse in Northern Virginia to house hack and looking for recommendations/advice. What are the best "rent-by-room" markets in NoVa? I've listed some (that I can afford below) for thoughts/feedback:
Reston - Near Silver Line metro and Reston Town Center; Companies setting up shop in Reston
Herndon - Upcoming metro (Silver Line); potentially in the "path of progress" once the metro opens
Sterling - Nestled between Reston/Herndon areas and Ashburn; another "path of progress" market that's still affordable
In terms of budget, I've received pre-approval for conventional loan with 5% down payment and would be comfortable in the 400k-550k range. Right now, I think my best option would be to look at 3Bed-2.5Bath homes with a finished basement. That way I can rent out the basement as another unit.
If anyone has any advice for a new real estate investor or just want to connect since you're in the DC area, feel free to connect with me!
Real Estate Agent · Arlington, VA · Member since 2017 · 98 posts · 50 votes
5y
Welcome to the community, Samuel! The first area that comes to mind for rent-by-room is Arlington County. It may be a little tougher to find something in your budget, but it's close to DC, has a solid professional community of young professionals, and is considered way too expensive by most people to just buy their own house (although ironically they could likely afford a condo easy peasy...). Alexandria is another option with similar reasons behind it.
A couple other random thoughts tied to your request:
Keep in mind the various limits each jurisdiction puts on how many unrelated persons can live in one house. For example, some areas are lower, some are higher - this will affect how much you can anticipate realistically making in terms of profit).
What are your goals? If you're looking for cash-flow, it may be tough. If you're looking to simply not pay anything out of pocket, you can probably pull it off. Appreciation is usually pretty solid for NoVA, so that's a win regardless.
Are you completely tied to living in NoVA? There's no wrong answer here. NoVA just tends to have higher prices, when you could look in MD and find something a bit more in your range with similar benefits.
Are you open to doing some manual labor to fix a place up? If so, that would open up the possibilities so much!
I'm an agent and have been in the area for a decent amount of time, and would be happy to help with anything you need!
Rental Property Investor · Loudoun County, VA · Member since 2020 · 3 posts · 0 votes
5y
@James Webber. I have a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath in Manassas that I will finish the bathrooms and flooring this month if you know of anyone looking to rent. I sent you a message.
New to Real Estate · Northern Virginia · Member since 2020 · 20 posts · 14 votes
5y
@Frances Marquez The advice/people in this thread have been amazing. I've been out making offers in Herndon/Sterling and falling short (thus far) but am definitely planning on updating this thread when I close on a property and when I've rented out the rooms for final numbers/analysis. Hopefully will have an update soon-ish but we shall see.
New to Real Estate · Northern Virginia · Member since 2020 · 20 posts · 14 votes
5y
Quick update to start off the new year. I was able to close on a property! It hit most of my criteria (4 bed, 3 full bath, ample parking, metro-adjacent) so now working to get the place ready for potential tenants.
PITI will be 2.65k/mo and hoping to rent out the rooms on the upper level for 2.2k-2.4k/mo. If you add vacancy/repairs/capex it'll be closer to 3.1k/mo, so when I move out I'm estimating that the basement unit can cover that spread. I'll update this forum again when I have "official" rental numbers to report (mostly for my own accountability).
Being a first time homeowner/house hacker I fluctuate wildly between excitement and terror but so grateful for the advice/support of the BP community!
Real Estate Investor · Washington DC · Member since 2011 · 19 posts · 3 votes
5y
Sterling now is a real up and coming, there was a "bad" side but that is quickly changing and prices on a percent basis are going up quicker than the "good" part. Reston I have a unit there where I rent by the room (2 br) and had yet to have a challenge finding renters.
New to Real Estate · Northern Virginia · Member since 2020 · 20 posts · 14 votes
5y
Final Update:
I have 2 tenants under lease and 1 in-process, total rental income will be 2,450/mo which almost covers PITI of 2,650. My total monthly payment will be ~3,400 (utilities/vacancy/repairs/CapEx). I included utilities and a monthly cleaning service to make it an attractive listing (and hopefully lessen maintenance costs by keeping the living areas/bathrooms clean). Lessons Learned:
1. The house was built in 2001, so I bought it right at the end of life for roof + HVAC. Basically I front loaded all my CapEx (rookie mistake). Next time I'll look for houses that have roof/HVAC replaced recently and invest in a home inspection that includes septic check.
2. Found dead roaches!!! I panicked, but after calling the local pest services there was no outbreak. I scheduled quarterly treatments just to be safe, since roaches can go from house to house through shared walls (did not know that).
3. Furniture is very expensive (duh) but there are so many little expenses/repairs that add up so quickly, so will budget more cash reserves and build a relationship with a trusty/affordable handyman.
Recommendations:
1. Maintenance: Any recommendations on local handymen, plumbers, electricians, etc. would be appreciated! Just been using Yelp/Google/Thumbtack reviews as an indicator for now.
2. Property Management Software: I'm currently using apartments.com (since cozy.co transitioned there) but it doesn't include maintenance requests. Wondering if anyone had one they used that they wanted to highly recommend (i.e. TenantCloud, Buildium).
3. Rent by Room: Just curious, are there property management companies that specialize in rent by the room tenants in any market?
Next Steps:
My next step is to start exploring long distance real estate opportunities. I'm interested in Fort Worth, TX and have started digging through the BP forums. If anyone has a contact they would be willing to connect me with, that would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you all for the feedback/recommendations and hope everyone is staying safe/sane in these crazy times!