All Forum Posts by: Joe P.

@Jon Horton I echo the same as above. You need a partner or group to help you properly evaluate this deal and determine its viability.

I think its great you want to get involved, but I would not start with something so big. Your entire life will be consumed with this from jump street. You would tie up every penny, every moment of your life, getting this thing production-ready. And it would last months.

No one thinks about the operation of this when you actually get it. It's like trying to capture a great white whale with your bare hands. It sounds great in theory until your underwater, with no tools, no oxygen, and a mouth with sharp teeth wide open ready to snatch you up.

If the possibility to partner with someone immediately, who you trust, and knows what they're doing...I'd say walk away. Not to mention almost a 100 units at 21k value? Eek.

Hi @Eli Rollins, welcome to BP. I wish I was as smart as you are starting at 17.

Two things you need to do:

1.  Save EVERY penny. Put it away, find some mutual fund, do something, but don't buy the useless crap that your friends are probably buying. Find a way to save on EVERYTHING so you can work and sock money away. Going out to eat? Try to reduce it and cook a meal yourself for a fraction of the cost. Got a gym membership? See if you can do the majority of your workout at home for free, or at a park somewhere. Bike ride instead of drive. Share a Netflix account with someone else. Before every luxury purchase, ask yourself if you truly need this.

2. Decide what your RE goal is. Make it quantifiable and realistic. E.g. "I want to own 50 doors by the time I am 40, and each door will have a cash flow of $1000 per year, so I will cash flow $40,000 per year."

Now, to truly answer your question, many people househack and I wish I had done this when I bought my first house. Your living expense will likely be your largest cash drain. If you make $1500 a month and you pay 30-40% in rent...it kills your chance of saving money realistically. So, eliminate that cost! Save every penny to invest in a multiple bedroom SFH, or multi-family place and house hack it. You live in one bedroom or one unit, and rent out the others. Run the numbers so if you have 3 units to rent for example, the monthly rent covers your mortgage (and hopefully more!). You live scott-free as others pay your mortgage, and you learn the ropes of managing properties and tenants. All the while the money your friends are paying for a mortgage, go right back into your pocket for investing in the next property, and then the next, and then the next.

Finally, I implore you to READ and LEARN as much as you can about R.E. investing to open yourself up to the multitude of ways to get into RE investing (house hacking, wholesaling, syndication, flipping, etc.) and you'll find something that burns a passion into your soul and you can adjust or enhance your goals as needed over time.

Good luck!

I use www.mysmartmove.com/ personally, and make the tenant pay for it ($40). I am not sure if you have to create an account...you very well may have to...but creating an account is par for the course these days.

Hi @Jill Buhrfiend, welcome, it'll be good to have your experience and knowledge on the boards. A few questions for you and your husband:

1. About how many of your offers are accepted? Do you do a lot of marketing, or do you just scour MLS and offer what will cash flow?

2.  21 doors starts to get into serious management needs -- do you and your husband manage those properties yourself or have you teed up management to someone else?

Chris - I saw other perspectives in the thread and responded in kind. It was helpful to see what others dealt with. My hard line was softened over time. :)

I certainly wasn't advocating for legal threats, rather, its her obligation to fulfill the contract or make a concerted effort to mitigate, e.g. subletting.

My second post -- after seeing advice from others -- was finding a middle ground. Speak to all 3 as adults, get their plan of attack, modify the lease accordingly, let them know the plan should they pay or should they not, and get moving accordingly.

It sounds as if the OP is already dealing with the problem of not receiving full rent and delivering a pay or quit notice, so I think they will be on the path to re-renting soon.

Ask for $50,000 from the seller? :)

I guess there are a lot of ways to tackle it. You could add it into a loan and pay the interest over time, you could do some kind of seller assist/seller financing deal that nets you the funds you need at a cheap rate, or you can buy the house for 40k less.

Bottom line is, if none of the above (whereby someone else takes the brunt of the damage and you leverage money) is possible, what does this do to the financial analysis for this property? Be prepared to walk away -- this is a flip at 40,000 in just "deferred maintenance" costs, in my opinion.

@Olivia DeMarco sounds like you have a good handle on the market. I would imagine in general, an extra bathroom makes sense both for you and for the incoming person. Personally, I don't like to share a bathroom with someone. Someone younger than me may have no problem with it. I guess it depends on the market.

Do you know other investors in your area operating a property in a similar manner? I like the idea of the house hack, which it sounds like you are doing, and I'm wondering if a local group may be able to answer your questions.

Ultimately, lets say a house with 1 bath costs 200k, and another house with 2 baths costs 250k. Can you charge more for two baths, and can you get more volume with 2 baths? And how long will it take you to make your money back on one bath versus two? And can you live with one, or can you live with two? Both have their advantages and drawbacks. If this is purely a financial decision, then see what the cost/income analysis for one versus two. If you can't get more money, won't get more volume, and it'll cost 100k more, I think the answer is very clear.

Seeing some of these responses, and I'm tempted to adjust my own advice! Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.

It is true you cannot get blood from a stone, but you also don't want the stone thrown at you.

I think there is a middle ground -- assuming no DV -- where she moves out, the other two make ends meet month to month (I would adjust the terms in your favor, but also gives them a chance to meet adjusted financial/lease obligations), and look to get a new tenant in.

If the other 2 think they can find someone to help pay, great, but timebox it. They need to still pay current rent and that new person should be in "X" time.

Not a fun situation, for sure, and I'm not sure there is a magic bullet answer. But you know these three people better than all of us, even if its limited.

• Any DV involved (whole different ball game - consult a lawyer)
• Can the two remaining "get by" on their income?
• Could they find a third to supplement the rent?
• Will the other two be in the same situation as the person leaving in a month or two? Do they even want to stay now?

I'd start to build a new profile of what life is like for these two based on current conditions, and then go from there.

 
Chris - everyone knows what you're trying to do. We're trying to tell you why it won't work.

Not only will you not be able to get this house for the pre-repair value -- the market is dictating a different price that is advantageous to the seller, or he is out of his mind -- but you will sink money into a house that has a clear comp.

Again, you can try, but as others have said, you will probably be laughed at. Not every market is like this, but the one your in simply is. So look to other markets where your distance between current value and ARV is higher and you have an opportunity to not only make profit, but also get a property at a fair value.

Hi Cody. What are your short and long term goals? Are you a handy guy who has time to deal with tenants, or are you just looking to get into the business? What do you want out of real estate?

15k is not much to get you started, frankly. I just purchased a home that sold for 102k, and I needed 25% down -- a little over 25,000, plus a few extra thousand in closing costs. That's a pretty cheap property, in my opinion.

I love the idea of a house hack because it allows you to get into investing, have someone hopefully cover your major costs (mortgage/taxes), allow you to build your systems, allows you to learn your costs/problems in a rental, etc.

But any decisions you make should be in line with your short and long term goals for real estate investing -- they need to be identifiable, quantifiable goals.