All Forum Posts by: Kat He

Agree with @Bjorik Mutize as well, it all boils down to decreasing cash-out and/or increasing cash-in. When you said you looked deeper into potential expenses, what is it that you found out now that you didn't know before buying the property? 

I closely follow the student/young professional rental market in SD and have rooms rented out individually. Areas that would cash-flow negative if I rented out as a whole unit can at least break even and usually even provide a good cash cushion depending on who/how you market (furnished? wrapping utilities? shared or private bath? etc) @Tim L. Happy to chat if you're considering that route. 

What I found helpful in getting real estate professionals to take me seriously is to show up prepared--educate yourself, ask thoughtful questions, and do what you say you'll do. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've had very supportive and positive experiences with people I've worked with and those I've met at meetups. (Yes, go to meetups even if you're nervous or feel like you don't know much!)

When I was living off-campus in college (2017-2018), I rented out an entire apartment and found roommates to rent with me at prices I determined. While others were looking to rent by room, I was able to live in my room for much cheaper than if I went out to look for a room myself. If you have little capital, want to save up money for REI, and want to get a feel for house-hacking/landlording, that may be one avenue.

I'll be moving soon to house-hack a property that my family and I partnered in and renting out my primary residence. I had savings and investments I liquidated as well as a job lined up right after graduation so I was fortunate to be able to enter REI right out of college, but there are of course many different ways to get into the game. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat further!

That makes sense, thanks @Account Closed! 

My primary residence is a second floor 2bd/2ba unit and directly across from it (on the other side of the staircase landing), is a 10x13 bonus room with two windows and a closet. I haven't measured the windows to see if they fulfill the 'room' requirements, but if I fulfilled all the other reqs by adding a wall mounted HVAC system and a smoke detector, could it appraise as an extra bedroom along with the unit? I am unsure how a detached/bonus room would be treated in an appraisal in this case. Thanks in advance for any input!

Hi Jack, I've been one of the local meetups and really enjoyed it. There's one on Jan 18 at Stone Brewing: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/656142-san-diego-rei-social-north-county. It's a very casual setting where investors and RE professionals of all skill levels go to chat and network. Hope to see you there!

@David Bergmann thank you for sharing your success story, the units look great! I love the concept of BRRRR and just became interested in the STR space so it was nice reading about how you managed to successfully execute on both strategies in one. What factors did you take into account when estimating rehab costs and ARV--were there any STR-specific metrics or considerations you had? Are there any specific things you did (atuomation, team members etc, furnishings etc) that really helped you turn this into a successful STR?

@Joe Garvin Loving the subtle beach theme of the unit, and great job getting to where you are now in 6 months! Do you have any general metrics when looking for vacation rental properties and have they been aligned to what your actual results are now? I just recently became interested in vacation and short term rentals, but am looking more towards the cabin/mountain properties. Would love to hear more about how you decided to get started and whether you see STR as a sustainable long term strategy.

@Dan H. Great insight, thank you for the deep dive!

@Dan Heuschele, I found the explanation of your thought process to be very helpful. To further this topic, do you use the 2.5x and 3x as blanket criteria for C and B class neighborhoods or do you also consider sub-communities (e.g a nicer complex in a C area or a more run down in a B area)? My thinking is that sticking with the blanket criteria will provide the protection of sticking with the numbers and not making “exceptions,” but you may lose out on opportunities for commanding higher rents in the first case or may lead to higher vacancy rates if you don’t adjust down in the latter case mentioned above.

Hi @Calvin Raab, welcome to BP! I remember being in your shoes literally years/months ago (just graduated this year)--I started learning about real estate investing and fell in love with the depth of knowledge, potential for early financial freedom, and opportunities for wealth-building that it could provide. You're off to a great start by networking early on and asking actionable questions, definitely something I wish I did earlier. 

I'm still working in the San Diego area, but in most of my free time I'm still learning all I can about real estate investing and slowly expanding my local and online network. I went through the courses needed to get a real estate agent's license, but have yet to take the exam. Definitely second Greg's idea of getting licensed or at least learning the material as it teaches you a lot and will help you confidently navigate your first purchase. I purchased a property a couple months back and am in the process of finding another one next year to house hack in student housing areas. Won't go into details here but shoot me a PM if you're interested in my background, thoughts on investment strategies, or would just like to connect!

It's a bit of a short notice but there's an SDCIA meetup event happening tomorrow evening that some of my colleagues and I are interested in attending. If you can't make it, they do monthly meetups so you can plan for the next one. Good luck with everything!