What’s your House Hack Story?

[Jacorion Williams]

Hey Bp members, specifically house hackers, whats your story? 

I’m currently very interested in investing in real estate long term and would like to get started with house hacking soon, hopefully by the end of the year. 

Currently 22 turning 23 next month and my goal is to house hack with my partner for the next 10 years before venturing out. 

So far, I’ve been learning via reading and listening to podcasts daily for the past few months along with saving majority of my income from work to go towards my first future down payment. 

My question is for anyone that has house hack or is planning to, what’s your story? 

What was your motive for house hacking? 

Did you have any troubles or any crazy stories?

What’s are some things a newbie investor like me should watch out for or avoid followed by what should we prepare ourselves for? 

Lastly, if there was anything you could do differently, what would that be? 

Thanks again! 

[Andrew Bosco]

Hey there! I am on my second house hack. Completely different stories. 

Househack 1: Bought in 2022 (Jan). 430K for a 2 family. Complete POS and bad tenants. FHA buy. House was barely passable. 3.0% interest rate. Overpaid and put like 70K into it. Looking back - terrible investment. All this said, I GOT STARTED! That is all it took for me to propel my real estate career. Gutted the entire building and left the exterior as is. I rented the top floor for 2200 per month for a 2 bed/1bath and the going rate for 2 beds was around 1800. I made my units A quality.

My tenant was paying 2200 and my mortgage was 2700 per month. My wife (girlfriend at the time) paid me 1500 in rent every month to live there (with me). We used that money over time and saved up. Bought out second house hack. Completely different place 1 year later. Also, my first house hack was a bad buy imo, but now with both units rented - my cash flow is 400 bucks per door, which is sweet. 

Househack #2: 5% down. 3 family. Completely turn key. FSBO. It was an illegal 3 family (legal single family with an in law) with a random other unit. Sat on the market. I made the owner a lower offer and asked for 25K back in credits. I am also an agent. I paid 600K (appraised at 700K) for this place and only brought 8k to closing with me personally since I also got a commission. The entire building was vacant and turn key. We are in a beautiful rural area. 5+ year plan to stay here. Everything is up to code now.

Motive: build financial independence. I looked at each house hack as a future payment to myself. 

Crazy stories; househack 1: peeling layers back and ended up gutting place. Tenants were respectful, but left in a angry way. Nothing to absurd. 

advice: just get involved, but make the deal work. On your first house hack - just make sure you pay less on a mortgage than you would rent.