All Forum Posts by: Ben Einspahr

@Ruben Helo, congrats on the acquisition! If you have not closed yet, what do your listings look like?  After decent pictures are up showing furnished bedroom w/ commons area, inquiries should pick up. When inquiries were slower, I was reaching out to leads directly via email + text. Have not had to do that in awhile though.

If you are using photos directly from the MLS, make sure you have permission from the listing agent.

Renting individual rooms out furnished can be tough! What is your price per room?

Tips on furnishing common area- Watch this BP property walk of a local rent by the room house hack. Will help point you in the right direction.

Keep us posted on this thread and let us all know how it goes! Excited to hear back.

@Brady Mullen completely agree. There can be a lot of misconceptions that come along with real estate investing, both good and bad

A three of the most common:

1. I don't know where to start! With so much information out there. Very easy to get overwhelmed.

2. I don't have enough money to invest. There are a lot of creative strategies out there that allow one to acquire their first investment property with low money down (no, I am not talking about BRRRR).

3. My favorite. I do not want to deal with tenant calls in the middle of the night.

@Marysue Connelly With you being close to retiring and more focused on cashflow, I would still recommend selling via 1031. At a glance, I do not think the suggested $200k in renovations will be a good return on your time and money.

If I were you I would connect with a real estate investor with a financial planning background that will be able to map out a few options based on your equity and goals. I will message you some contacts

Best of luck!

@Jorge Adarraga I would first make sure the lender you are talking with is familiar with house hacking. Nothing about house hacking is illegal. You are buying a single family home. Living in it for 12 months or more and turning into a rental. 

While you can only have 1 FHA loan, you can have multiple 5% down conventional loans

@Benjamin Sulka the self sufficiency test does play a factor in 3-4 units when using traditional fannie mae, freddie mac financing. 

@Arunmozhi Varman This is a question I receive quite often, especially with the recent rate hike last week. IF you are ready to move, I would not wait on the sidelines until rates go down for 2 reasons:

1. Who knows how long you could be waiting. Could be 2 months. Could be 2 years.

2. Everyone and their bother are doing that same thing. Once rate touch 5.999%, there will be a mad rush into the market and we will be right back in a bidding ware like we were in 2021.

By now. Refinance later.

@Alexander McConaughey Struggling to understand what to do with your rental property/portfolio is becoming more and more common. 

Short answer: Here is the rule of thumb I typically use

Cap Rate= Less than 5%. When calculating cap rate, be sure to use todays current market value, not what you purchased it at.

LTV (loan to value)= less than 50%

ROE (return on Equity)= Less than 10%. Watch this video on BP YT channel It was super helpful

I have a simple spreadsheet that helps calculate all of this if you have multiple properties. Happy to DM it to you. Let me know.

Best of luck!

@Blake Jones Welcome to BP Blake! Finding yourself local meet up to consistently attend is a great place to start. Notice how I put emphasis on consistently! 

Next, I would identify the strategy/ market you are looking to invest in. This mainly comes down t the following:

- time you have to invest

- cash available

- experience level

Over my years, I have noticed house hacking being very popular for young savvy professionals like yourself. That is a great starting place to consider.

Also, with so many different strategies to choose from, it can be pretty easy to get overwhelmed. I have taken a few investor quizzes/ decision trees in my time. They are super helpful and typically come with educational material and content. The one I just recently took was great. Ill DM it to you.

@Kristyn Cross I can relate to growing up in a house hold where working the 9-5 and living in your forever home was the norm. But house hacking with a family is definitely possible as I am doing it with a little one of my own.

Your biggest challenge will be financing. A good option for you could be having someone cosign on the loan (like a parent) to help you qualify. At the same time, see what you can do to start saving up for that downpayment. There are a lot of grant programs out there that offer downpayment assistance to those who qualify.

Right now you are not surrounded around people that are familiar with or support your house hacking goals. You need to change that by regularly attending some networking events and connect with others that a where you want to be in 1-5 years. Check out the events under the learn tab on BP.

Last thing is education. A couple of months ago, we did 6 part webinar series on house hacking in our higher interest rate environments with case studies and interviews with industry experts. Focused in Denver by same concepts apply. Happy to share the recordings if you want… let me know. Best of luck!

@Christine Cho If you have the budget for it, then I would do it. Worth connecting with a plumber or a good handyman. Maybe some other odds and ends that come along with the install other than plumbing. Nice if one person can knock it all out for you. 

@ryan cullen great post and great questions. You started looking in the right place!

1. Set for life by Scott Trench read it twice and each time gives me a different prospective all depending where I am in life 

2. Single family house hack with separate mother-in-law above the garage. You get the benefits of a duplex with out the high price tag. Very common in the Denver Metro.

3. 5% down conventional. No need to get fancy here. KISS. Only challenges were typical inspection items. It is key to have an investment friendly realtor that has a track record in the strategy you are looking to execute. 

4. STR= Airbnb.MTR= Airbnb and Furnished Finder. LTR= Zillow.

5. Keep it simple and dont overthink it. You first one does not need to be a home run or grand slam. Time in the market is better than timing the market

6. Absolutely. You figure them out as they pop up. Chances are if you are running into them, someone else has ran into them. Reach out to BP

I just wrote a post on BP walking through the first few steps to landing a successful house hack. Check it out here.

Also, I just finished a 6 case study covering everything you need to know about house hacking as a beginner. Mainly focused in the Denver Metro but same principles apply. Happy to share. Let me know