All Forum Posts by: Kyle Rich

Quote from @Ryan Thomson:

@Kyle Rich as far as getting into a house with your high DTI:

Is your lender letting you count rent for other unit as "Income" to help you qualify and reduce your DTI? If not, might be time to talk to another lender that understands that's an option.

Getting a cosigner is another great option. You and your buddy could set up an agreement and make it happen. 

Hey Ryan,

My lender is considering the rental income for the other units as apart of my income when calculating my DTI, its the crazy amount of student loans that I have thats bringing the ratio in the "red". When I'm running the analyses through the calculators here on BP I'm looking to, at a minimum, cut my monthly housing expenses. Considering its a house hack, at a minimum I look for a cashflow of at least -$800 since I am paying $1,107 in rent right now. My buddy has the same idea; house hacking his way to financial independence, starting with lowering his monthly housing expense. 

Quote from @Charles Carillo:

@Kyle Rich

Ideally, you want to use an FHA loan when house hacking; it allows you to use the cash you were going to use for the down payment, for deferred maintenance. When you are saying that there aren't any deals that work in your market; what are you exactly referring to? When I house hacked triplexes, the other 2 floors would cover most of (sometimes all of) my mortgage, insurance, and taxes. I feel the goal with house hacks is to have the other tenants cover a large portion of your mortgage payment. I have spoken to others that want their tenants to pay everything so they live for free, but I have never found numbers like this to work (in neighborhoods I wanted to live in). Lastly, I personally would not partner with someone on a house hack. I would pay down your debt until you are at a level to afford a property with an FHA loan, where the tenants are covering most of your monthly expenses.

 Hey Charles,

Thanks for the response! What I mean by the deals not working in my market is that the ones that are priced within my pre-approval amount are ones that wouldn't pass the FHA living requirements, as their fire damaged, etc.

Hey everyone,

I am looking to get into house hacking currently to reduce my monthly housing expenses and, ideally, cashflow while I am living in the property. Currently, I am looking to use an FHA loan since it requires a low down-payment. My DTI is too high currently due to having about $135,000 in student loan debt between undergrad and graduate school. I was pre-approved for $175,000 for a duplex using an FHA loan. For the Springfield, MA market that I am looking to house hack in there aren't any deals that the numbers work with.

I was looking for some advice on the best way to get into a house hack with my high DTI. So far for ideas I have are partnering with somebody to fund the deal and have my partner put the loan in their name and seller financing. One of my good friends is looking to purchase a house this year and house hack as well so I would probably partner with him and save/pay down my student loans while living with him. I am unsure if my realtor is comfortable with pitching seller financing to sellers right now. Any other creative financing ideas would be greatly appreciated and if you need anymore information let me know!

My full time job is with a non-profit in the area that handles housing so I can definitely concur on the statement that some neighborhoods are better than others. In my opinion, if you have the time, driving for dollars would be a good strategy to go with. Just to get yourself more familiar with the specific neighborhoods that you're looking for. Lowell is kind of a stretch to drive from but if its getting you the properties in the right location then it's all worth it. 

Currently I am living in Chicopee, and have been for 2 years now but I was in undergrad school in the eastern portion of Springfield. From my experience of the area, I would say the more east you travel, closer to Wilbraham, the better the properties are. Wilbraham itself is more expensive and has a lot less multifamily properties, but near the college I went to over the last few years I have seen a lot of developments and new stores go up. Definitely agree that this area could have potential in 5-10 years.