All Forum Posts by: Sarah Stevens

Thank you everyone for your insight! You've given me a lot to work with.
I'm very flexible in my living situation as I was housesitting while being nomadic for 2 years and now live with two roommates, so I'm definitely comfortable in shared, unpredictable, and unconventional circumstances. Airbnb has been on my mind as I will most likely be renting by the room in a SFH or using a unit in a multi fam for as a STR.
I've come up against the self sufficiency issue with pretty much every single property. I know the lender will have their own appraiser do an analysis to determine market rental prices, but the PnLs we've been getting from the current owners show only losses on what would be a new loan, so my lender has been pretty weary.

Hey everyone!

I had originally planned to purchase a 4plex and owner occupy so I can use an FHA loan and only put 3.5% down, but since I've been analyzing properties (thank you BP!) the ones in the 400-700k range don't seem to cover their own costs, let alone cash flow. I live in Phoenix and it's a really expensive growing market so my goal was more to have a place to live, fix up the property and refinance as I grow equity, as opposed to cash flowing each month. Right now I'm paying $850 for a room in a house for myself.
My original strategy just hasn't seemed possible, so I'm wondering if changing up my strategy and buying a single family home with a casita, or a way to build one or section off part of the home as a second living area and renting out the rest would be a better way of at least getting in and getting started with something. 

If I buy a single family home with a conventional mortgage and 5% down, I'll have enough left over to eventually buy another property if owner occupy it and use an FHA loan. Is house hacking a single family home a good way to go? In anyone's experience, would it ruin my debt to income ratio making it harder to get another loan?

I appreciate your help!