All Forum Posts by: Jaston Robinson

@Isaiah Fariel I moved into my house hack last Oct. This is my first property and here's the numbers on it:

Purchase price $260,000

FHA loan 3.5% down $9,100

First time home buyers asistance $7,500

Total down payment needed to close $1,600

$9,100 - $7,500 = $1,600

Monthly mortgage + monthly fees = $1,800

Net monthly income $1,900

Cash flow $100 month 

This is all the numbers on a 3 unit. I provided all of these numbers to show you how powerful an extra unit can be. Just food for thought! Best of luck. 

@Anthony Thompson Thank you! It's been a great journey with the first so far. We can't wait to obtain more! Additionally, We actually meet briefly at RIREIG. I look forward to networking more.

Hi Michelle, I have found success networking at local real estate investor meet ups, joining facebook groups and also looking under "real estate" on the app meet up. Hopes that's helpful. 

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Pawtucket.

Purchase price: $260,000
Cash invested: $5,000

My first investment property is a 3 unit house hack that I bought via FHA 3.5% down ($9,100). Since it was my first property I was eligible for a first time home buyers assistance of $7,500 towards the down payment. It was an amazing experience to purchase an entire home for less than $2k!

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

While working as a part of the frontline mid pandemic my housing situation fell through. Thankfully, for about 1 year and a half prior to this I spent a lot of my time researching, reading, listening to podcasts & educating myself in real estate. When the combination of education, opportunity and being backed into a corner. I jumped into action. A house hack was the perfect entry way into real estate.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I found this deal through a great investor realtor named Marc Santos located in Rhode Island. He helped secure the property with a competitive offer. I remember him stating " The goal is to control the property, you start by doing that with a competitive offer."

How did you finance this deal?

I financed this property with a 3.5% FHA loan.

How did you add value to the deal?

I'm currently doing a live in rehab.

What was the outcome?

The outcome has by far exceeded all of my expectations. I currently cash flow $100 per month after expenses and I live rent free. Living rent free is also giving me the opportunity to save 40% of my income towards my second property.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned to have laser force during the inspection. Major things like foundation, electrically and plumbing issues were not included in our inspection report. However, I take full responsibility because I should have known better because of my education.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I worked with an amazing attentive team to close this deal. First, was my investor realtor named Marc Santos who helped find and secure the deal. Second, was my loan officer named Joe & Zach at Anchor Financial located in Pawtucket, RI. Lastly, was my girlfriend Alexia who also partnered with me.

@Anthoney Hanks wonderful idea about partnering with some one and being a property manager. I find that to be a very reasonable solution to my problem. Thank you!

Hi @Colleen F. I've had a few credit cards for about 5 years now. I too have a relative similar to your brother so I wanted to avoid that myself! In addition, you make a great point on disputing things on my report. I do have a few I can pursue. 

Hi! While driving for dollars I found a few properties with these signs up! I was so excited to see that all of the hours of listening to podcasts were paying off. I will make sure to keep a close eye on Craigs list also. Thank you !

Hi ! nice to meet you. I wish you the best in this learning phase. If I can give you any advice it'll be just to stay consistent with learning. Every Monday and Tuesday my girlfriend and I head to a Starbucks and study for about three hours. It's easier to hold yourself accountable when there's a routine. Lastly, house hacking is when a land lord uses the rents to pay down their own expenses (i.e the mortgage). The goal is to be cash positive (to have more income from rents than expenses for the house). Hope that was helpful and good luck!

@Anthony Thompson thank you for the suggestion about seller financing. Thats truly a wonderful idea.  I have already come across a few for sale by owner properties where that could be an option ( I simply haven't asked yet). I'll have to study a bit more before I approach these sellers with option. I don't even now where to begin to start preparing to have that conversion. 

I also will take a more in-depth look about these first time owner programs. Do you have a suggestion on which website will be more informative? Or would just a google search do?

Hello, my name is Jaston (new member) and for the last two months my girlfriend and I have been in the education phase. We're both recent graduates and have developed a passion for real estate. We realize it's a great way to build wealth /cash flow if we put in the time and effort. We have been using a majority of our time simply learning and networking which has been going amazingly well. Our goal is to own multi-families (3-4 units) in the markets of Pawtucket and Woonsocket Rhode island within the next 6 months. We've come to the conclusion that a FHA loan would be the most beneficial for financing seeing how we want to house hack and have very little capital to begin with. After working with a few people, I realized I would not get pre-approved due to my income. He advised me that my two part time jobs is what's holding me back and I should get a 40 hour position in order to continue. Clearly I will be working on obtaining a full time position but in the mean time what else should I be doing? We really want to stick our goal of purchasing our first property within the next six months. Should I pursue other forms of financing i.e private money/hard money? Are there other federal loans that I can get pre approved for with my current financial situation? I'd appreciate any and all advice. Thank you in advance!!