Living free and Cash flowing house-hack in Bay area
Purchased 5bedroom/5bath 2400 sqft single family home in Hayward (foothills, near CSUEB), CA for 880k. Built in 1980s, but owner had deferred maintenance, and selling as-is. House is SFR, but has 2 1bedroom/1bath units that have separate entrances in the back with their own kitchen/living room. I put ~10k into the fixes to make it FHA compliant (Fire extinguishers, fire/c02 alarms, removing drywall that blocked the doors from "main house" to other units).
The 2 back units have inherited tenants renting at 1500$/month (slightly below market rent), the main house (3bd/3ba) was renting for 2700$, and the tenants had moved out so I could move in (per FHA guidelines). I re-painted the main house, added sound proofing to the drywall, refinished the bathrooms, added new light fixtures, and just finished converting the 2 car garage into its own unit, one of the bathrooms is downstairs near the garage door, so instead of adding a bathroom in the converted garage, I simply gave them that bathroom (cut down significantly in costs as well). The main house has a: living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, that I felt was a crazy amount of space for them. I put a door separating the main house and gave the garage unit the family room, making the garage unit a 2bedroom/1bathroom, main house a :3bedroom/2bathroom with living room, dining room, kitchen.
My wife likes all the space in the garage conversion and wants to move in there instead of the main house.
Numbers:
FHA mortgage impounded account (including property, taxes, insurance etc.) @ 2.65% - 4700$/mo
Utilities/internet - ~300$/month
Mortgage impound + utilities = ~5000$
Up unit in back - 1500$
down unit in back - 1500$
Main house: (finishing up furnishing main house, expecting) ~3000$/month for 3bedroom/2bath
all units = 1500$ + 1500$ + 3000$ (expected)= 6000$ - 5000$ = 1000$ cash flow (rough, not including maintenance, vacancies, etc.)
When my wife and I move out in a few years I expect the 2bed/1ba garage unit to rent for at least 2000$. Ill look to refinance and get out of PMI when possible, and should be able to get mortgage down to 4000$ as well.
I ordered a boxabl casita to put in the backyard that is supposed to arrive around end of year.