All Forum Posts by: Aaron Zimmerman

I would recommend house hacking. It's the easiest way to get into real estate with the lowest risk. Depending on the property, your realistic worst case scenario is paying as much as you were in rent for your house hack.  

Welcome! House hacking in an expensive market such as Boston is a great move. What specifically would you like to know about house hacking?

Zack brings up an excellent point. You'd want to do a return on equity audit to see how much you're generating from the property. If you have a low single digit return, it's probably time to move on. 

in addition, I'd check to see if you can sell the house with an assumbale loan. This will probably increase your purchase price. 

There’s a lot to consider. For starters, the loan you’d likely want is a hard money loan as you can renovate quickly and then do a refinance. As for the loan, conventional loans under your name are typically going to offer the best terms.

100% agreed with@Ricardo R. - this is a phenomenal synopsis. 

Definitely a good conversation to have with a cpa and specifically one that handles short term rentals too!

Good deal but you're probably a little more negative cash flow than you think. The fact that you have $80k of equity and you're only cash flow negative with that low of a down payment is a good sign. Given you have a good job, you should be able to float any unexpected issues. It's also possible rents increase over time which will boost cash flow. Not sure if you factored that in.

Is there an opportunity to do light cosmetic rehab and increase rents?

I would look to explore a cash out refinance and if the property is still a good investment with this, then I'd say keep the property. If not, look into selling but at this point, you may not be able to maximize the sales price due to seasonality

Personal ownership is usually fine. I would be more focused on getting into your first property.

LLCs do come with some documentation requirements such as separate books and records, no commingling of personal vs business funds. 

Rentometer is relatively good. I'd look specifically on the reports for sf and look to see if the units have similar finishes to validate comps to the target property