All Forum Posts by: Corey Hawkinson

@Abel Curiel In my experience, people have been more receptive to Section 8 type programs after seeing what happened during 2020. I use a program that is very similar (specific to my state) in 10 of my 11 units. I’ve had several more in depth conversations with other landlords about the program because people see the value in “guaranteed” payments. As the other person mentioned, it is only as good as the program sponsor so I put guaranteed in parentheses.

@Kevin Donaghue It really becomes subjective to each person on what they want to pay and where they want to live when it comes to house hacking.

The important thing is to make sure the property works when it is fully rented out. (Plus reserves including vacancy obviously) Ideally, you use house hacking as a way to grow an investment portfolio. After you move out in order to buy your second house hack you need to be making money off your first house hack.

@Wang Judy As others have mentioned it does take a lot more work but deals can be found in most markets. I found a 5-unit in the greater Twin Cities area for $330k where combined rents are $3,800 per month. But you need to put in work and be connected. To my knowledge, I was 1 of only 2 people who were presented that deal. And the other person referred it to me so it takes some combination of effort and luck.

@Brandon Sturgill It is caretaker of the property, not a caretaker for anything medical. If you have a multi unit property you might give 1 tenant a reduced rent and in exchange that tenant with lower rent mows the lawn, shovels the snow, replaces lightbulbs and might even do very minor repairs.

Minnesota has a tax form for the landlord to fill out and give to the tenant that shows the amount of rent they paid for the year. The state wants to compare apples to apples as best they can. The tenant paying less rent, but providing service needs to get credit for the full amount (rent plus service) that they provided to the landlord.

@Ben Kreuter Minnesota wants to know the full rent amount, basically the full value someone received. Example, let’s say you have a 10 unit property at $1,000 per month per unit. However, you give 1 tenant a reduced rate of $500 per month because they take care of the property. The value you received is really $1,000 for that unit per month because you received $500 in rent plus $500 in service to maintain your property. For the CRP form (Minnesota’s Certificate of Rent Paid for those not in this frozen state) you would need to include the $6,000 rent ($500 x 12) plus the $6,000 discount they received.

@Patrick E Plowman I wish I would have found the book Set For Life when I was your age and followed that path. Ok, so it wasn’t written when I was your age but my point remains that I would be retired from my day job now if I had started on that path earlier. Especially with house hacking. I had an opportunity to do that when I started out, long before I knew the term house hack and I passed it up.

You’re smart to think about this while you’re young. Put together a solid plan and stick to it. Also, there are great investors within the Twin Cities willing to help, at least 3 of them already commented ahead of me. When networking events start again you should join them.

@Austin Peterson Welcome from another Twin Cities investor. Dan is most likely recommending the same groups I would recommend. Hopefully it won’t be too long before in person networking events return. Hope to meet you when those return.

@Mitchell Loukusa Welcome to BP from another Twin Cities investor. Those are solid goals. Feel free to reach out if you ever want to connect or if you’re looking for any local suggestions. I have nothing to sell you since I’m not an agent, lender, contractor, etc. I’m just a person who has received help from many people and is always willing to continue that pattern to others.

@Carmel Duffy There is a lot of good advice above. You will need to check on the local laws though. For example, a few people above said to take the applications and select someone else. That’s good advice for their area. However, in certain cities around me that would be deemed illegal discrimination. If I owned in those cities, I would be required to accept the first applicant that meets my criteria.

@Jason Jones This is a great plan and many investors do this. You can get the mortgage for the second purchase with less than 20% down. Conventional with PMI is just one example. I'm not a lender so I'm not an expert on that but I can give you contact info for a few in the Twin Cities that I would recommend.

I built up to where I am through this process, although I was not as motivated as you to do this every year. In hindsight, I wish I was.

I bought a condo that I lived in for 5 years. Then bought a house to live in. I kept the condo. I later bought a different house and kept the previous house.

It worked out very well for me. Through two 1031 exchanges (including another condo that was always a rental) I have now sold the condo and house to purchase a 4 unit property and a 6 unit property. All of the properties mentioned are in the greater Twin Cities area. (Newport, Farmington, Bloomington and South St Paul)