All Forum Posts by: Matt Solis

You seem like you're in a rush. Don't be. You need to focus on educating yourself (read books, watch videos, listen to podcasts, lots of googling, etc). This will be your foundation, don't skip it. Here are some suggestions:

Books: 

The House Hacking Strategy, Craig Curelop

Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki
The Book on Rental Property Investing, Brandon Turner

Youtube: 

Stephen Graham (building credit, real estate)

Ask Sebby (building credit)

Charlie Chang

Podcasts:

Bigger Pockets

House Hacking Success

Also, follow people that are doing what you want to do on social media.

Good luck.

Hi! I am also a brand new agent, and this is my current game plan:

- Block out time every day to lead gen. This is the engine that will keep your business running. Be consistent. 

- Consistently post on social media, with an emphasis on education. What are the questions a lot of people ask? Make reels/posts about those topics. Plan ahead.

- Make sure you have a mentor that has done what you want to do!! 

- Host open houses, go to networking events. If you go out for fun, be sure to bring up your profession in conversation. Work your SOI.

- Generally speaking, lead with value. How can you be of service to someone else?

Good luck and have fun!

House hacking a SFH would be the best way to get started IMO. High leverage investment, high potential for cashflow, live for free, great way to get started. I don't know your market, but if you say multifamilies are rare/expensive, you could be waiting for a long time before you get one. I'd look for something with at least 4 bedrooms. Look for properties that you could easily add additional bedrooms (an office or game room that could be a bedroom, an area of the house that could become a bedroom with a couple of walls, etc.).

As far as finding tenants, remember that you can be REALLY picky. Fair housing laws are more relaxed if you’re living in the house, FYI. Use roomies.com or spareroom.com to advertise your rooms. I would recommend having a list of must-haves in a potential roommate and screen out the tenants via messaging first, then graduate to a phone call, THEN a tour of the house, and only then do you send them the application (if you like them). Make sure the application includes a background check, credit check, eviction history, etc.

Feel free to reach out if you want, I have two house hacks and manage 9 tenants currently.

I’m assuming both the husband and wife’s names are on the deed, and my best guess is that she is correct in saying that both would need to sign the lease for it to be valid. Although, it’s very sketchy that a security deposit was delivered before the contract was actually valid. I’d definitely be talking to my broker, but if it were me, I would probably let it go as it’s not worth the headache to get lawyers involved, as long as you get your security deposit back of course.

There are services that provide the numbers (mojo, REDX, vulcan7 etc). You can also check FSBO listings on Zillow and see if you can find a phone number of the property owner.

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but have you considered a bank statement loan? Would need 2 years of bank statements. 

As far as finding a seller financing deal, I would get your hands on some phone numbers of FSBOs, expired listings or absentee owners in the area you’d like to invest. Do some research on scripts and go to town on cold calling to find a deal. 

The hardest part is the amount of hours you need to invest to be successful, e.g., educating yourself, finding good deals, building relationships with others in the field (including contractors), finding tenants, managing the rentals, not to mention the amount of time you’ll spend just thinking about real estate investing! For me it’s been a very “active” investment, but so fun and so worth it.

I would suggest you find a CPA that has experience working with clients that invest in real estate. They can best advise you on how to structure your business.

Hey Austin, congrats on your first house hack! I use apartments.com for applications (which includes background check, credit report and eviction history). I also use apartments.com for creating the lease and collecting payments. I would suggest paying for the utilities yourself and baking it into the rent, rather than trying to split the utilities evenly every month. Good luck!