All Forum Posts by: John Roesler

@Roman Ripp yes, what part of Saint Paul? May have a recommendation for you

I think in reality you can house hack most anywhere. We live in a suburb of Saint Paul, called North Saint Paul (not to be confused with the northern part of the city Saint Paul). And we recently finished our basement into a separate unit and successfully renting it out to pay off the finishing costs and then be cash flow until we decide we need more space for the kids.

If you plan to house hack and then possibly move somewhere else, then I think the neighborhoods others are suggesting make a lot of sense to buy a duplex! I have a couple duplexes in Dayton's bluff area. It's a rougher neighborhood than somewhere like West 7th, but very much a block by block area. One of my duplexes is on a nice block and rents for a few hundred more a month than my other duplex that's just 3 blocks away.

@Ryan Chernik

I would echo what James said. I have a similar situation duplex up/down and I simply include estimated utilities and the rent. I make out better in the summer when gas is used less and worse in the winter when they’re heating the place.

@Bryan Beal

Agree with you Bryan. People need to get woke. As others have said, the deaths from other causes of harm from the economy being shut down will vastly out way the covid deaths. If we can even trust those numbers - I’ve heard some questionable things from doctor friends about being given guidance to count even suspected covid deaths as such.

Sadly, I feel the root of this is the fear of death, and the media’s desire to sensationalize, because it sells. So, some wrong models and predictions at the beginning blew this way out of proportion, freaked us all out and now we don’t know what’s going on. Glad to see Texas is opening up. People in my home state have started protesting to be allowed back to work to pay their rents and mortgages and put food on the table.

I find it sad how quickly people get down right nasty when anyone questions a belief held by the majority. Right now it’s covid. Last year if you said vaccines you were liable to get shot. Whatever the topic is, if you’re not in the main, you’re a lunatic, hater, terrible person who is selfish and doesn’t care about any one else. Some peaceful disagreement and debate would be nice once in a while.

@Linda Gozar

Great so far. Cash flowing each month!

@Peter Heldstab

Duplex is going well! Ended up doing some work on it - to add laundry into both units. Both are rented now with non-12 month leases to get onto a summer lease schedule. I’ll make a post for it sometime soon

@Nick Tenge

Another idea - I am in the process of converting the lower level of my SFH into a unit. I'm in a nice neighborhood and wanted to house hack in the burbs. Not many duplexes in my neighborhood so this route made sense for me. Not cheap though ~60K to finish into a unit (2BR 1400 soft).

I just bought a duplex in Dayton’s bluff for 200k, but as you note not the best neighborhood for that price - plenty of duplexes I’m finding in that range 150-200K.

@Bradley Johnson

I have one duplex and looking to add a second one in. Using Stessa to manage the financials and store documents, rentapplication.net for applications, and cozy.co for rent payments.

I don’t yet have a plan for electronic signatures, so I’ll probably do in person lease signings to start.

@Brent Paul I just closed on a duplex in St Paul that is essentially “turnkey”. It was a flip. Good projected numbers. Just found it on mls.

@Jennifer Figueroa 

Home is 4br/2ba

Renting for $975

When I plug the address into rentometer.com, it shows [average: $872, median: $895, 25th percentile: $765, 75th percentile: $979 ]. So I am renting on the high end of the range for the area.