Our third house hack has lead to a week of major wins!

Our third house hack has lead to a week of major wins!

Realtor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2014 · 137 posts · 103 votes

I feel so truly blessed. I have to start by thanking the Lord. Without him, none of this would have ever been possible.

This week was a week of huge wins for us. First, the wonderful US government has extended an exception our way by allowing us to purchase another primary residence using an FHA loan. This is because my husband's employer moved us over 100 miles away from our first primary FHA mortgaged property in Fort Wayne, IN.

That first house hack, our first house, allowed us to save about $12k while paying off about $7k in debt. That $12k allowed us to buy our second property, a fourplex in Fort Wayne. The fourplex was a steal. We purchased it for the list price of $49k and immediately had equity. Still not sure til this day why it was listed so low. My only guess has always been that the agent used single family comps instead of multifamily comps.

Six months after we purchased the fourplex we used the same lender and same appraisal to pull out most of our downpayment, $11k, with a refinance.

By using the BRRRR method we were able to use this same $11k to purchase our third property in Chicago on Friday. Actually, we only used $7k for our downpayment on a triplex with our second FHA 3.5% down loan.

$2400 of that $11k is going into new flooring and a new countertop at one of the apartments in the fourplex. The remaining went into needed roof and chimney work at our first home, the duplex. Both well-spent items that we used the equity in the fourplex to do.

Because I am a licensed REALTOR I am able to pay myself for every house that we buy and in particular with Keller Williams, I earn almost 100% commission up to two properties a year. With the purchase of the triplex on Friday I will earn a commission check for $9600. Which is $2600 more than what we put down on the house! Since we are on the intentional path of paying off all of our debts (besides our mortgages) we are going to use $5000 of that commission check to pay off our truck. At that point, we will increase our debt snowball by about $200. 

This IS OUR THIRD HOUSE HACK! This time will get us to DEBT FREEDOM! Here it the break down for the triplex:

The mortgage $3108

Rent for the 1st floor apartment $800

Rent for the 2nd-floor apartment $1350

Leaves us with a payment of $958. We pay $1875 for rent now. We will snowball the different: $917 towards our student loan debt on top of the $900 we pay already. Using our debt calculator this snowball along with no lifestyle inflation will get us out of student loan debt by the summer of 2020!

Other windfalls this weekend:

We got an escrow check from the fourplex for $368 and our monthly mortgage went down to $333!!! That is an extra $131 a month in cash flow.

The couple that is going to take over our current lease is going to move in half way through the month saving us $937.50 plus they are going to pay our $250 relet fee!

To round it all out this week is our 11 year anniversary. We are so blessed and I feel so lucky to be able to share all of this with my husband. 

Thank you BP for allowing me to share our success story!

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Rental Property Investor · IN · Member since 2015 · 125 posts · 93 votes
8y

Congrats, Michelle!  It is refreshing to see that your time here in Fort Wayne was used to bring about God's plan in your life to be debt free and most importantly, give him glory!

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  • Rental Property Investor · Brookfield, IL · Member since 2017 · 89 posts · 17 votes
    8y

    Thank you for sharing your story. It's quite inspiring. It helps me visualize myself doing something similar. It is a very realistic story and I hope to be able to take similar steps toward that financial freedom. Wishing you many more triumphs on your road ahead.

  • Rental Property Investor · IN · Member since 2015 · 125 posts · 93 votes
    8y

    Congrats, Michelle!  It is refreshing to see that your time here in Fort Wayne was used to bring about God's plan in your life to be debt free and most importantly, give him glory!

  • Andrew SyriosPro Member
    Moderator
    Residential Real Estate Investor · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    8y

    Congrats Michelle, that's great!

  • Investor · Fort Wayne, IN · Member since 2016 · 108 posts · 24 votes
    8y

    Congrats Michelle. That is awesome!!!

  • Stephanie P.Pro Member
    Washington, DC Mortgage Lender/Broker · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    8y

    @Michelle Bright

    That's really great stuff right there!!

    Congratulations.

    Stephanie

  • Realtor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2014 · 137 posts · 103 votes
    8y

    Thank you, everyone, for your kind words!! @Account Closed my time in Fort Wayne was wonderful!! I miss it all the time. We got the opportunity to learn so much while we were there as well as meet so many wonderful people involved in real estate there. We wish you two continued success!!

  • Brandon RobertsPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Fort Wayne, IN · Member since 2015 · 23 posts · 5 votes
    8y

    Congrats Michelle, keep doing big things! 

  • Investor · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2015 · 96 posts · 46 votes
    8y

    Very uplifting story! If more people thought like you this country would really be moving! Keep up the good work.

  • Rental Property Investor · Livermore, CA · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 0 votes
    8y

    grats on your new purchase and the success of your previous purchases have a question for you I'm in the process of trying to do a house hack right now via an FHA loan and I'm being told that because it's multifamily it's not qualifying for 3.5% down and that FHA is requiring 10% down simply because it's multifamily did you find that to be true in your deals I guess what I'm asking is this A lender requirement or an FHA requirement can anybody point me in the right direction to find a lender that will do this for 3.5% down

  • Rental Property Investor · Livermore, CA · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 0 votes
    8y

    I have a follow-up question also were you asked to have 90 days of payments in the bank on top of your down payment it seems to me that it would be cheaper to go with a conventional loan than what I'm being quoted and since I'm new I'm trying to find out if this is typical or not

  • Rental Property Investor · Member since 2018 · 483 posts · 956 votes
    8y

    Congratulations!

  • Investor · Jasper GA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    8y

    Great job.  You have been working hard and have goals.  That's 2 of the things it takes to get ahead and what most investors excel in.  

  • Corpus Christi, TX · Member since 2018 · 62 posts · 24 votes
    8y

    Such a inspirational read. Especially for house hacking. Thank you for sharing this and I hope the blessings continue to flow!

  • Investor · Fort Wayne, IN · Member since 2013 · 152 posts · 126 votes
    8y

    Now that's some smart and creative investing! 

    Congratulations 

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