All Forum Posts by: Gray Bryan

The cost basis would be $122k plus whatever it cost to get the house ready to sell plus commission fees I guess. The market value for it is about $500k.

It depends on what the bank is going to lend you. I don't know who is lending with only 3.5% down and they aren't going to lend you some unlimited amount so the size of the house does matter.

If you have vacancies, the bank doesn't care, you still have to pay. Also, there is no guarantee that you can charge enough to cover all of your expenses. If it was too easy and foolproof everyone would be doing it.

It can be done. I have a friend who is a massage therapist and has a house in Bellevue near Bellevue mall. He lives in one bedroom and rents out other two.

However, as you know, RE is very expensive in Seattle (and Bellevue). I have a small 2bed/1 bath in Seattle and the tax assessment is now $500k. For a house large enough to "hack" it's going to be more like $750 at least.

Buy another house that would be less expensive.

I have some farmland/timber land in N.C. and I leave the farmland out each year. I get about a 6 percent return on my money plus capital appreciation. Every 30 years I can sell some timber. :)

I am single and own a house free and clear and it's worth about $500k. Under current laws I can only exempt $250k from capital gains. I could get married and file jointly and the exemption would be $500k which is enough to cover me.

What other options are there? :)  If I took out a home equity loan and pulled out $250k, sold the house and paid off the home equity loan, which this accomplish the same thing?