All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Sulka

^ Totally agree. Save your funds and start with a house hack. 

You said you live with your parents. Are they currently charging you rent? If they aren't, take advantage of that and save as much money as you can to buy a property you can house hack. I have no insight into the San Diego market but try to buy a 2-4 unit if that is a thing there. 

Khang,

First figure out what your goal is and then work backwards from there! If you need $5,000 cashflow per month to live comfortably, then you would need 50 properties that cashflow $100 a month (for easy math but you get my point).

The most important step is figuring out if you can even qualify for funds to purchase real estate. Network with some lenders that work with investors and determine how much you can qualify for. They will look at your debt-to-income, credit, income history, etc. 

Figure out how much money you qualify for and then start by house hacking a 2-4 unit property. Don't expect upfront cash flow because you will be:

1) Occupying one of the units 

2) Putting low money down which means your monthly mortgage payment will be higher 

3) You have to pay PMI (since you're putting less than 20% down, this gives the lender further security if you were to default)

Start with house hacking and look at real estate as a long term wealth building strategy. When you house hack, the goal is to learn to manage a rental property and pay less than you would renting.

Hope this helps. 

Quote from @Mason Green:

Hey everyone, looking to purchase our first investment property and would appreciate some guidance. We are located in the midwest and looking at Kansas City and Chicago as we are familiar with both cities and have spent significant time in both. We would love to house hack and use a fha loan but, are open to all investing options. We are young (24 and 26) Any advice on either of these markets and options to invest in.

Thank you, Appreciate any information and advice given.

Mason, 

House hacking is 100% the way to go for a newbie investor (I am one). It's an awesome way to set you up for future success and long term financial wealth building. I've had conversations with dozens of investors and almost all of them have recommended starting this way. 

Definitely start networking with some lenders in those areas that you want to invest in. This will give you an idea of how much you can qualify for which will help you narrow down where and what to buy. Make sure these lenders work with investors and have done loans for owner occupied multifamilies. Fannie Mae recently rolled out a 5% conventional product for 2-4 unit owner occupied properties and this is something you should consider. 

Conventional can be advantageous compared to FHA because it's easier for a seller to accept conventional over FHA because FHA has some guidelines that can make closing more difficult. PMI also falls off at 78% LTV for conventional (or 80% upon request) whereas it stays on FHA for the life of the loan. 

Best of luck! 

^^ House hack! 

Especially if you don't need crazy cash flow. Check out some 2-4 unit properties in your area that you can owner occupy. You almost won't certainly cash flow much (at first) but you'll be paying less than you were renting, learning about real estate investing hands on, and learning how to be a landlord. 

Definitely something to consider. 

All the best! 

Google recently released info on how to provide the search engine with listing data to help vacation rental listings show up in Google Search. This allows Google to showcase information about your property like location, pricing, images, reviews, etc.

To do this, you need to add vacation rental structured data markup to your website. Google explains how to do this here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structu...

Doing this helps Google show your vacation rental listings more prominently in search results which can further encourage potential renters to click your listing. 

For those of you who have a website for your vacation rental business, I would highly recommend connecting it to Google Search Console to view organic insights and improve your technical SEO. If you add the vacation rental markup to your website, you'll be able to utilize Google Search Console's "Rich Results report" to monitor and fix how your structured data is set up for your vacation rental listings. 

Adding this structured data markup to your website gives more information to the potential rental and can improve your click-through-rate (CTR) and ultimately increase the number of people who rent your property. 

Hope this helps! Here is a very simple example of how this would show up in Google Search: 

-Ben (Digital marketer & soon-to-be rental property owner)

This really puts into perspective that a house hack deal is possibly in basically every market. 

All the best to you! 

Quote from @Jake Andronico:

@Justin Hansen

Congrats!!! BOM listings can be such fantastic opportunities. 

Sounds like a great situation, especially in this lending environment!!

 @Jake Andronico What is a BOM listing? 

Anthony, 

I have no experience with HOAs (other than my grandmother always living in one and complaining about it haha) but all I've heard from other investors is bad things. 

The purpose of investing in a physical asset (other than to build long term wealth or passive income) is to have more control over the asset and what you do with it. The governance of HOAs can be unpredictable and you could be screwed by someones lust for a little bit of power. 

I'm sure there are people who have had positive HOA experiences but for the most part... avoid. If you're ever considering buying in an HOA, do your due diligence to the max and make sure you read all of the documented HOA regulations.

All the best! 

Hey Clevelanders, 

I know there are many national grant programs like NACA that can help first time home buyers with down payment/closing costs.

I'm curious if there are any Cleveland (or Cuyahoga County in general) first time home buyer programs. My rental lease is up at the end of June 2024 and I desperately want to avoid renting another year. My future wife and I are going to owner occupy a multifamily in Cleveland suburbs like Lakewood or Cleveland Heights. I'm just not entirely sure I'll have enough capital for down payment, closing costs, initial repairs and reserves by the time my lease is up. 

The goal is to have $30k and we probably have about $15k now and saving $2,000 - $3,500 per month depending on the month (we took a hit from buying Christmas gifts Lol). We will definitely have $30k come June but realistically need to start the home buying process in February or March. 

Grateful for any assistance and looking to connect with more Northeast Ohio real estate investors! Shoot me a DM and lets hop on a call. 

Appreciatively,

Ben (soon-to-be house hacker) 

Hey Matt! 

Would definitely love to connect with you locally. I'm currently living in Lakewood and really trying to purchase a multifamily here (or other B+ or A Cleveland suburbs) and house hack with my future wife. 

Finding deals here hasn't been an easy task. MLS deals are too pricey or they need a bunch of renovation. I've been trying to pursue some off-market strategies like driving for dollars and calling for-rent signs.

Cleveland Heights is also a market that we are considering. I'm more familiar with Lakewood because I live here and walk my dog past rows of duplexes every day. I really want to buy one! 

Send me a DM. We should absolutely connect.