All Forum Posts by: Sonny Christopher

Welcome Barbara! I see that you are in Nashville as well! Id love to connect and grab a coffee sometime! 

A little late to the game here but all the information is spot on here.

I really like the Donelson area. It wouldnt be much farther than where you are now in terms of commute for work and daycare. 

The thing to be aware of with basements is to make sure that you have enough ceiling height. I see a lot of basements that are converted into living space that "technically" have proper ceiling height but is obviously short. If you do go this route, make sure that you can access the basement unit without going outside. My understanding and my experience is that as long as you can access the unit from inside the house, it can be considered a mother in law suite and not a duplex.

For DADU, I think your best option would be to find a property that has the proper zoning and build your own. You will be paying a premium for one that already has an existing one. So creating value and equity to a property, rather than paying for it. Cleveland Park is a great neighborhood for this but there are more neighborhoods where this is being allowed. 

I am a fan of putting as little of a down payment as possible. So Id look into getting a 3.5% FHA loan on a single family or small multi- family. Your living cost may go up from what your paying in your apt now but you are putting money towards a loan and gaining equity vs in apt you arent gaining anything. I dont know what the rental market is like in your area but I know the travel nurse market is a great and can typically bring in more than your traditional long term renter.

With the money you save from putting a lesser down payment you can put into savings and have that be your reserves for CAPX and maintenance. 

The value in house hacking in my opinion is lowering your living expenses, having someone else help you pay down your mortgage, gaining experience dealing with tenants and real estate investing all while your property is gaining equity and then when you move out in couple years it becomes a cash flowing rental. 

My advice would be to look for properties that are outdated but still livable. This way you can renovate and upgrade the place while you live there to not only increase the value of the property but increase your rents. 

I have struggled with this- I want to speed up the process and run before I walk sort of speak. My advice would be to focus on getting the current house all fixed up while trying to save where you can. Once the current house is completely fixed and in order you can start to focus on getting the second property. 

Its ok if it takes a little longer than you want. You are already so far ahead of most people that never take that first step.

And like a previous poster said, you can learn alot from this first house and use that knowledge going forward with future properties. 

Good luck!

Just another thought- just because its single family house doesnt mean it cant have a secondary living space that can be rented out. 

As already mentioned you can get another FHA loan but if you were to go the conventional 5% down route you could look for a single family home that has a basement or mother-in-law suite that could be made in to a secondary living area and rent that out so it would function just like a duplex. Just make sure that you can access the second unit from inside the house. If you have to go outside to access it, you may have issues with appraisers seeing it as a multi-family vs a SFH with MIL suite.

I like to have a separate account for rentals to help with record keeping and just to keep it separate from my personal account. A CPA can also help advise you on some best practices for this!

A lot of good information here already! 

A cosigner would definitely help. You may want to look into a THDA loan to go along with your FHA. As of me writing this reply they have great rates- better than most products. They give you 6% of the purchase price to go towards closing cost and down payment (its a down payment assistance loan). Now this doesn't necessarily fix your income and qualifying concern but would greatly decrease your cash out of pocket and allow you to use that cash else where.

If we are able to negotiate to have the seller pay for closing cost, you could actually walk away from closing with a check as opposed to writing one. Just did this yesterday actually! Client walked away with title writing him a check for $2650. Now there are obviously some restrictions but sounds like you wouldn't have a problem with them. 

Feel free to reach out if you have any more questions! I live in Nashville as well and would be more than happy to grab coffee or a beer