All Forum Posts by: Daniel Haberkost

@Trystan Fuglseth that’s a good start, I’m sure you can find other house-hackers there and pick their brains. Good luck!

@Trystan Fuglseth Okay yeah it sounds like they have some relevant experience. So I'd still recommend trying to find other investors in your area and talking to them too. But for me it's extremely easy to find tenants at any time. The market here is ridiculously hot and CO Springs has been on list after list of "most desirable places" "most popular for millennials" etc. so there's a severe shortage of affordable housing. My basement bedrooms rents for $900/month because it has its own bathroom....

In any market it's easier to place tenants in the summer for sure so you will definitely want to find the ones who are looking for somewhere long-term. Have you looked on FB Marketplace and Craigslist to see what rooms are going for? Do you go to any local meetups?

You mentioned you spoke to your coworkers about potential vacancy issues, do your coworkers own rentals that they rent by the room? If not, I wouldn't take their advice/opinion and I'd find someone local who actually is doing this in your market and ask them. I house-hack here in CO Springs and there are several colleges here along with a significant military population so before doing this I assumed that is where my tenants would come from. Turns out, that's not been the case at all. My point in saying that is there may be other tenant pools that work for you that are more stable. The college kids may not even matter. 

As an aside, I wouldn't want college kids in my house anyways. But that's just my opinion.  

Growing up, I was the poor kid among my friends. My parents were (and unfortunately still are) slaves to their jobs. They never got to see their parents/siblings, we never went to dinner or spent time as a family because they were always working, and they never got to do anything they liked/enjoyed. My parents both live about 6 hours from their parents/siblings yet they only have seen them once or twice a year for a couple of days for the last several decades. They are stuck in the depressing Midwest and would love to leave but can't. I have two older siblings and I watched both of them fall into this exact same trap. This was the reality for my aunts/uncles/grandparents as well. 

This is completely unacceptable and I will not fall into the same situation under any circumstance. I will not compromise on spending time with the people I care about and doing the things I enjoy. Investing in real estate has absolutely nothing to do with anything material and has everything to do with freedom over my time (i.e. MY LIFE). If I decide I want to fly home and see my parents tomorrow, I can. If I wake up and don't feel like working, I won't. I control my time, nothing and nobody else does, PERIOD. 

That's why I invest in real estate and I've found that to be the case for most investors I know. 

-Dan

@Andrew Cabrera Welcome to the forums, do you have a plan as to how you're going to get started?

@Benjamin Ford This sounds like a very effective strategy to me and I have a friend who is a doctor who did something very similar to cover his student loans. I liked what you said 

"For me personally, the risk of becoming someone who doesn't start, is more dangerous than the risk of relying on an income based repay plan."

Are you investing locally in VA?

@Kaiden Angle have you spoken to any banks or loan officers? As a first time home buyer you will likely want either a 3.5% down FHA loan or a 5% down owner-occupied conventional loan.

@Jeff Tyndall other than Rich Dad Poor Dad (and the accompanying books in the series) I was impacted by Think and Grow Rich and Poor Charlie’s Almanac quite a bit.

I think it’s very important to read books outside if RE investing as many of the concepts are applicable and I’d highly recommend The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks, Influence by Robert Cialdini, Deep Simplicity by John Gribbin, and Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

Assuming your credit score and debt-income ratio are where they need to be, you should be able to do 5% conventional no problem. I bought my first property with an FHA loan, then on my second house-hack I did a 5% conventional loan, and plan on doing #3 here soon!

I don't have any input on the area/legality. But I rent out all the rooms in my house and originally had the same concerns that you do. I have a 4/3 and the rooms stay rented with no issues at all. It's not difficult or uncomfortable if you do it correctly. The things I have found to be most important are screening your tenants thoroughly, being upfront with them as to your expectations, and being mindful of everyone's schedules. So I have one tenant that leaves at 7am, one at 10am and one at noon so nobody is in the kitchen at the same time and everyone gets home at night at different times. If all three of them worked a 9-5 then there may be conflict. 

Good luck!

-Dan