All Forum Posts by: Eric Yu

Hi Everyone, 

I am new to the STR game and wanted to ask about Rental Registration & Inspection Ordinance (RRIO) in Seattle, Washington. How do I know if I need a RRIO inspection? Is this required before publishing my listing for Airbnb?

We scheduled a separate general inspection to check for issues because our 1-year warranty is ending in March 2023. Do I need both the RRIO inspection and general inspection now?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Kind Regards, 

Jennifer

What are the best ways to house-hack in 2023 where generating positive cash flow is still possible? When I run calculations I'm finding that cash flow and sometimes even breaking even is hard in T1/T2 cities and their suburbs. I've looked at single family homes with several bedrooms and rent by the room. I've looked at duplex and triplex arrangements and even furnishing attics and basement potential value ads, but most of the time the purchase prices still make cash flowing a house hack seem difficult.

Hi everyone, any insight is greatly appreciated on this property I am trying to make an offer on:

List Price: $229,900

Offer Price: $161,329 (~70%)

Earnest Deposit: $5,000

Date to close: 01/30/23-03/03/23

Mortage Type: FHA (3.5% down)

DOM: 75 Days

Location: South Jersey (Woodbury, NJ)

Motivation: Seller just wants to sell and not manage this specific property anymore. Multiple alternative properties, lessen the total properties to manage.

This would be my first real estate investment and I am actually trying to house hack this duplex property. The agent I am working with thinks that the offer might not get a response, but I wanted to incite negotiations. My concern might be with that fact that I am using an FHA loan, so maybe I may not have as much leverage in being to negotiate with the type of financing. Or do I? I understand the Market I am in plays a major factor, but based on my evaluations (with Pro-Forma data), I know the list level price that will allow me to positive Cashflow, break even (live rent free), and negative Cashflow. As have been repeated in all real estate educational points, "you make money when you buy, not when you sell". With that any advice to keep in mind when working with the seller, seller agent, and my buyer agent?

Hi All, 

Looking to get short term rental insurance for 4-5 properties. All of them located in Tampa Bay Area. Looking for reliable insurance agent. Greatly appreciate inputs. 

Hello,

I am considering using the Seattle STFI process to add a 1 story, ground level, less than 750 sq ft addition to a house I own.

I have used the STFI process previously to remodel a kitchen, with me doing the design and much of the work myself.

A housing addition is obviously much more complicated than a kitchen remodel, however, I would like to save $ and GC the process as much as possible.

My ideal process would be:

• Get professional help in all aspects of design, feasibility etc.
• Get professional help in planning the build, schedule etc.
• Me scheduling, orchestrating the individual contractors on the build (slab, plumbing, framing, electrical, etc.)
• Me doing most finish work.

Question:

Does the process I described above seem reasonable? If so, who would be the best type of professional who’d be able to help me on #1 and evaluate the feasibility of an addition, given the constraints of the existing plot, structure, etc?

Thanks for the help!

I'm diving head first into real estate here getting my real estate license and looking into investing. I found a deal near me that I could buy: a 2 unit place and house hack it, living in the 2 bed/1 bath unit with tenants in the 3 bed/1 bath unit. I can pull the trigger pretty quickly but I am as new as they come to the market and want to make sure this will be a pretty good deal out of the gate. I think that this fails the 1% rule, but I am not 100% confident because I'll be house hacking it and the units aren't the identical. Is anyone willing to talk me through this deal? I thought I was ready but I got overwhelmed quickly by all of the numbers. Here's a link to the Zillow: 324 Bennoch Rd on Zillow.

Hello! I’m excited to learn more about real estate investing, and to see what the Bigger Pockets community has in store. I would like to find advice and resources in the North County San Diego, CA market. I’m interested in house hacking within the next year or 2, but I am not sure if it is possible for me in the expensive San Diego market.

Thanks !

Bree

Bought my first 2-bedroom condo in the Seattle area in 2021 for roughly $500k. My family is growing and we need a bigger space. We were thinking of house hacking- renting out current condo and getting a new house then after a couple years rent out the new house and do it again.

However, the next step up to a 3 bedroom that isn’t terrible is roughly $800k in our area. We can afford it and still be able to invest in rental properties with a higher mortgage (we invest in STRs). Problem is with interest rates, I’m not confident we would be able to rent out the $800k house in a couple of years when we want to upgrade to a new house. We’d be competing with houses for rent that are the same size, but bought years ago and have lower mortgages and therefore lower rent.

For those of us in markets like this, what do you recommend? Just sell the $800k primary when wanting to upgrade or is there some way to make it work by keeping it and renting it out?