All Forum Posts by: Griffin Malcolm

Hey all, just got my first house hack this spring and am thinking about how to get my next property. My house now needed a new water main, sewer line, roof, and electrical work, so I've gotten a good group of people to work with so far. This gives me more confidence to tackle a flip. 

After my first purchase, I have about 12k in the bank and another 15 or so in stocks I could utilize if need be (would prefer not to touch this). Took out a 33k home equity loan to pay for these repairs. Currently make 60k at my job. I can't get another owner-occupant loan until next spring, so I'd have to do a 20% down investment property right? If so, how do you guys go about sourcing private money to pay for flips? Is private money even what you'd do in my situation?

Hey guys, I worked with Trustco on my first house hack this year and they said they can use 100% of my rents on the first house to count towards my DTI on the second. My question is how exactly do I report this income? Are there specific forms I need to fill out that any bank would need / do I show bank statements of the rent?

@Ryan Thomson Thanks for the replies! I feel good about reporting the rents now so that they'll cancel out my DTI for house #2. And I agree; would much rather live with friends at a slightly lower price point.

Yeah. I talked to my lender this morning that did my first house and he said they can actually use 100% of the rents, as long as I report them on my taxes. I think I'm good to go now! 

@Josh Young Got it. I was reading other posts last night and came across the 75% of the rents to help with DTI strategy. Gonna do that. Interesting that some banks wouldn't count room rentals though. Is the lease binding? For example, could I have one of my friends sign one that says he's paying $2550 (the sum of 4 people paying $650 a room) to give to the bank, but in reality just keep it the same where each person pays me individually. I ask because this house needs to be rent-by-room to cover the mortgage. Renting the whole place to one person / family I could get maybe 1600-1700.

Also, I think my friends could find something cheaper elsewhere if I raised rents. Gonna stay at $650 for now. 

Hey all, just completed my first home purchase this May at age 24 and wanted to share! SFH 5 bedroom 2 full bath in Schenectady, NY. Mortgage is around $1650. Home equity loan to repair the roof, collapsed pipe in the sewer, water main, and fix the electrical is for 33k, or another $240 a month, so all in I'm around $1900 a month. Purchase price was 180k and it appraised for 230k, so I feel pretty good about it. After the 33k loan I'll still be 17k in positive equity with an updated home.

Will have 3 college friends staying with me for $650 a room, so while I'm living there the mortgage will be completely covered. I wanted a duplex so I could cash flow, but after looking for months and months, with close to 10 offers submitted and one falling through at inspection, I decided to expand my search to SFHs. 

I don't want to gauge my friends for rent, but I see some posts on here for rooms going for close to a grand each. Do you guys think I could get more per room here? Also, how do I navigate my debt-to-income being high now so I can buy my next house? The only thing I can think of is using my 2 in 5 rights to sell this house in 2 years and then roll it into a nicer duplex that will cash flow. Is it possible to keep this SFH and also get a duplex? Thanks!