All Forum Posts by: Daniel Haberkost

 Try it both ways then, see which gets you the most responses. I made sure I had very nice photos and a thorough description which helped a lot. I also talked about myself in the post which made people more comfortable. In my market, there's a severe lack of affordable housing so there's no shortage of people looking to rent rooms. I would imagine that's also the case where you're at. 

@Andrew McCartin I do an "all inclusive" price that compensates for the utilities as well. I don't think adding another element to the arrangement that could potentially cause disputes is smart and I haven't had anyone abuse the heat/AC over the several years I've done this so I plan to keep it that way. 

I would just compensate for utilities in your rent and then advertise it as all inclusive.

-Dan

 I get your frustration, when somebody asks me to "get coffee" to "pick my brain" I always ask what they've done so far. If the answer is "nothing" or that they're "researching" then I pass until they've actually taken some sort of action. 

Doing nothing is enabled quite a bit online. If someone who is new makes a post of almost any kind they get a bunch of responses "congratulating" them for "taking the plunge"........ making a post on BP is not taking the plunge, neither is reading a book or listening to a podcast. We need to stop making people feel good simply for existing. 

I like what @Brian Garlington suggested, make sure they've started the process before spending time with them. 

@Jorge Maximiliano Salazar What’s your financial situation like? Do you have a decent W2 income?

I bought my first house hack at 21, you could do the same. You have mentors and a decent amount of knowledge from what you’re saying. What’s stopping you ?

@Matt Carozza I would start with house hacking. It's so easy relative to BRRRR, or really any other RE strategy. Plus, it greatly improves your financial situation which makes it far easier to take on more challenging projects. There is also very little downside risk with huge potential for upside, which are the types of bets I like to take.

@Brett Danehey when I first started I listened to/read all multi family podcasts/books so I thought the same way. The reality is that every positive that is said about one or the other can also be turned into a negative, it’s entirely a matter of opinion.

If you’re finding houses that cash flow and are undervalued I’d go for it.

@Kevin Hill I like where this is coming from and see quite a few great points throughout the thread.

The way I frame it, it’s not that new investors shouldn’t get started, it’s that investing from a place of financial strength should be emphasized now more than ever (or perhaps it always should and we’re just more aware of it). You don’t want to be the over leveraged newbie who has no equity in their properties and minimal reserves.

If you have significant cash on hand, equity in your properties and make substantially more than you spend each month you can weather the (potential) storm. So it really comes down to not forgetting about the basics.

A few people have already said this but having multiple exit strategies is essential as well. I’ve made offers on several flips in the last couple of months BUT was prepared to hold them as rentals if needed.

I hear all this talk about how there is so much uncertainty in the world right now, but isn’t that always the case? Aren’t we just more aware of it now? The future is always uncertain..... which is why we buy from a place of financial strength, keep cash reserves, have multiple exit strategies and avoid over leveraging - that’s it.

-Dan

@Matt Carozza there have been quite a few great responses provided already (and you can see the experienced members consistently saying the same things) but I wanted to add a few thoughts on focusing. 

Once you've found your "why" make sure you decide on a strategy that aligns with it and stick to it. It's too easy to get caught up in a million different strategies thinking you need to do all of them. Every week on BP you hear different investors talk about different strategies (all of which sound great) and the same is true when you attend local REI meetups. If you try to do too many things at once, you'll likely do none of them (successfully).

I made the mistake of trying to do too much at once and it caused me to plateau in my business for some time. Don't make the same mistake. 

Decide what you're going to do, pursue that aggressively and don't move on until you've mastered that avenue.

-Dan 

@Account Closed throughout Covid there has been little to no change in my market from what I can see. In the middle of the shut down I made several offers on off market deals and was outbid by a substantial margin as there were a multitude of other offers. I've continued to make conservative offers and have been outbid repeatedly, wholesale deals are still frequently going for ridiculous prices. 

Values/rents have continued to climb as people are still moving here in droves and supply is still extremely low relative to demand. 

I've had no issue with collecting rent and neither have any of my investor friends. 

Regardless of the fact things have remained copacetic up to this point, I'm proceeding with caution. Many of the government supplements and protections are coming to an end and we're likely going to see the effects of the shutdown in the next year. I think we're "living on borrowed time" economically speaking and will have to see some sort of recession in the coming year. 

What concerns me the most is the long term impact of The Fed's actions on our currency and economic system as a whole. They're destroying the middle class and inflating the value of our assets, I do remember reading once or twice that foreign investors still flocked to the dollar as they believe it to be safe, but I expect that to change well within my lifetime. 

Anyway, to your original question, things have not slowed down here in Colorado Springs at all up to this point. 

@Joseph Griffith 

To answer your first question, I've house hacked in a very cheap Midwestern market and a more expensive (but still cheap compared to many coastal cities) market. House hacking here in CO Springs is much easier as the demand for single room rentals is much higher. The house cash flows with me in it, I have fantastic tenants, negative vacancy and they're staying for the long term. Plus, the wealth building from amortization/appreciation is much more substantial and I'm not paying for it. 

To answer your second question, I'm of the opinion that you should live where you want and build your business there (that's what I did) but that's not necessarily right/wrong. As you can see from @Brian Ellwood post, many people go with the out of state investing approach and do very well. The one thing that I think everyone will agree on it that you should live where you want to live (Colorado is hard to beat)!

So you should decide where you really want to be, then decide whether you want to just invest there or go out of state and take action accordingly. Plenty of people have been successful both ways, it's just a matter of putting in the time & effort. 

-Dan