All Forum Posts by: Pablo Cuevas

Good Morning BP,

So a few month ago I had posted about how I wanted to house hack and needed some input on whether my goal and timeline were realistic. Now, a few months down, I have spoken to a few lenders, and it seems like the dream is more and more likely by the month. My problem before was knowing whether I would be able to afford and get a house within in a year. Now I need to know more about the market, how to crunch the numbers and find a good property.

To give a little backstory, I want to buy a 200k house, and rent it out to my current roommates (there's two of them). We are good friends and I am not necessarily looking to profit off them, more so just live cheaper than we are living now in apartments, and in a house together. When they graduate from college and go back to their hometowns is when I actually want to begin cash flowing. This is all just an idea as of now though. I have thought about charging them more than I would be paying monthly, and they said they would be fine with that. I am just not sure how much to charge them exactly. 

Anyways, how do I know whether property A of 200k will be better than property B of 200k. What numbers or factors do I look for to say, "this property is gonna be really good, go up in value, cashflow nicely when my roommates move out in 2 years." I live in San Antonio, TX, and the area I am looking to get the house in is an area with a lot of things to do around it, and next to two large educational institutions and a few big San Antonio attractions. I have been using Zillow and its monthly cost calculator to see what the monthly expenses would be for every house. The costs usually come out to $1400-$1800/month. From those numbers, 3 of us and my girlfriend will be living in the house, so say 1800/4 + utilities estimate, we would come out to around 500/month each if we split the costs evenly. After they move out in two years, if all goes well, I hope to buy a second property and turn this house into a rental.  

In all, what exactly should I look at when I am searching for a house? What should I look for in my market? And how do I go about charging my roommates a reasonable price, while also thinking about rental income after they move out? 

I feel like I am all over the place, sorry, it is my first house and I just want to have a great start to my real estate investing. Thank you all for your advice and I look forward to speaking with y'all. 

@Sam L.

Thanks for your reply Sam, so i am working a w2 pt job, but I also have a 1099 side hustle. I do have good credit above 620, it dropped quite a bit the last months due to unemployment, but Ill have it around 700 within a year. Ok so my income does come around to a 200k+/- house.

About creditI I am graduating from college before I plan on getting this house. Do student loans after graduation affect my credit score? This was a recent problem I have brought into my equation.

Thank you for your input!

@James De Leon

Thank you for your input James, it means a lot to have your support and advice. Yeah, I have heard of lenders being better with rates but also good things about banks, I will just have to call or email all of them to see what they can do for me and go with the best deal. Thank you for time!

@Bradley Dosch

Thank you so much for the reassurance and for your advice. It helped a lot hearing from another person rather than reading from website after website. Also thank you for putting in the link for BofA. Ill definitely take everything you said into consideration and put what I can to use. Thank you so much.

Hello, I am 20 years old, and I am looking to buy my first house at around July-August 2022, and renting out the spare bedrooms to my current apartment roommates. 

I am currently working a PT-$15/hr job, saving up all the money that I can afford to save for the down/closing costs. I am looking to buy a $150k-200k house, and I just want to get some advice on the best way of going about this. 

I have been doing a lot of research on the process and options I have on getting this house to work. The best way seems to be through an FHA Loan and a DPA Program. Do banks give me the access to FHA Loans and DPA Programs, or do I apply to those separately? Is a bank the best option for a loan, or where should I look instead? I suppose the lender options, rates, and qualifications is what confuses me most about the process with the idea of househacking.

I am not entirely sure if I am going about this process correctly, but any guidance or advice would be great, and does this goal seem realistic given my income and the home value I am looking for?