All Forum Posts by: Kyle Spearin

@Sophie Grizzle as a real estate agent in your area, you have a competitive advantage finding good deals. That's awesome! 

I recommend having your exit strategy in mind as you're buying the property. Are you gonna combine long term and another type of rental strategy? Figure out what would help you cash flow when you move on to the next one.

@Olivia Di Dio awesome that you're doing a live-in flip! Would love to hear more about this story and how you're going to parley that into more properties.

@Thomas Key checkout Padsplit, they're entire business model is around renting by the room. Not positive what markets they're in, but worth looking at them and/or competitors to see if there's an all-encompassing solution for you.

@Ben Matiella wishing you the best of luck-- I'm actually in the process of buying a multi-family house hack in Boston, so we're in the same shoes. I'd highly recommend reaching out to people in your area on BP and follow Ryan's advice on meetups. 

100% count me in!

@Isabel Anness This is an excellent question and something I wish that I'd thought more about when I bought my first house. I know you probably want to pull the trigger and just jump right into things, but I highly recommend building up a nest egg first.

Start by saving about 6 months worth of expenses. Think about what your mortgage would be on a home without renting it out and the expenses you currently have to be as conservative as possible for a worst case scenario.

Then, save up for your down payment and closing costs. If you want to expedite this, you could consider a side hustle or find a way to increase your income. That way, you can put more away each month and get to this point faster.

Even though you aren't at your desired savings yet, start educating yourself (you're in the right place) and learn your market really well so you can act decisively when the right time comes. 

Happy to discuss this further if you need any help. 

@Deborah Bailey very sorry to hear about your loss. There are multiple schools of thought on this and it really comes down to your personal comfort and financials. 

One argument is to keep the property and bleed a little bit up front to build equity through appreciation over time. If you can force appreciation through a rehab and raise rents, then you might be able to cash flow as well. 

You could also try a short or medium term rental to increase cash flow if your area is conducive to it. Additionally, renting by the rooms might work in a college town or with populations that are attracted to cheaper housing.

Selling may be a good option if you can deploy the capital and get a higher return elsewhere-- but since you just bought this and paid closing costs and will have to pay realtor fees etc., I'm wary of this unless you absolutely need it.

I'm really curious what the rest of the community thinks and look forward to hearing what you end up doing. You got this!

@Erika Baker that's a great question and you have a ton of great responses above, so I'm going to take a slightly different approach. 

My question to you is, what's the cost of not starting?

Interest rates are higher than the past few years, but are still close to historical averages. Real estate COULD drop in value in some areas, but on a long enough time horizon we've seen it go up by 2-3% per year. 

It's never going to be the perfect time, but by starting now and taking what the market gives you, you'll have experience and hopefully equity that will be useful in easier future market conditions. Wishing you the best of luck on your journey!

@Jake Turner congrats on getting started! Have you considered what strategy that you're going to dive into first? 

When I first learned about real estate, I wanted to do raw land development, flipping, rentals, etc. I didn't end up doing anything until I refined what I wanted to and would highly recommend narrowing your focus. When I started to do live-in flips in the Boston metro area, I started to build confidence. It's much easier when you have a strategy that you go deep on rather than surface level on a bunch of things. Good luck!

@Jeanne Kelly and @Lien Vuong following this thread to learn more about property management in the Boston metro area.