House Hacking Your Way to Homeownership: Discover Real Estate Investment and Financial Freedom

Unlock the door to financial independence through the savvy real estate strategy of house hacking! In this enlightening episode, I team up with Bryan Lafame, an expert realtor from Washington, to guide you through the process of turning a multi-unit property into a cash-flowing investment. Learn how living in one unit while renting out the rest can substantially reduce, or even eliminate, your mortgage payments. We also debunk the myth that large down payments are a barrier to entry, shining a spotlight on assistance programs that make house hacking accessible for first-time buyers. You'll discover how residential loans, like FHA and VA, can be a game-changer in your property-purchasing playbook.

As we journey through the nuances of real estate investment, Bryan and I share personal insights and actionable advice on creative house hacking techniques. Imagine transforming a single-family home into a duplex or adding an accessory dwelling unit — strategies that not only enhance your living space but also generate rental income. Dive into the legal landscape of Washington State's housing laws, and see how they're paving the way for innovative, affordable housing solutions. With a focus on financing options, we reveal how the right approach can set you on a path to accumulating assets and, ultimately, owning your dream home.

But it's not all spreadsheets and statutes; we bring a dash of fun to the mix! Alongside the profound real estate wisdom, we invite you to chuckle with us as we playfully roast our own state as well as other states! Remember, no place is off-limits in our humorous roundup. Whether you're tuning in for the insider knowledge or just for the laughs, this episode is a must-listen. Bryan and I are ready to connect with you, offering one-on-one Zoom calls to discuss your real estate aspirations or simply to share a good-hearted giggle about the unique quirks of our beloved states. Don't miss this comprehensive guide to financial growth through house hacking — it could be the key to unlocking your real estate success story.

👋 Considering a move to Seattle, Washington or its dynamic suburbs like Tacoma, WA & Bellevue, WA? Dive deep into what living in Seattle and its neighboring areas truly feels like.

Explore through neighborhood vlog tours, city pros and cons videos, and get unmatched insights into relocating to the Greater Seattle area! Transition confidently with guidance from a native Realtor® who's eager to help you settle in your perfect home! 🔑

Whether you are moving in 9 days or 9 months, give us a call ☎, shoot us a text 📝, or send us an email 📨 so we can help you make a smooth move to the greater Seattle, WA area! 

Aaron Morrow Realtor Serving (King, Peirce, & Snohomish counties)
📱Call or Text: 206-451-3771
📨Email: aaronmorrow@livinginthegreaterseattlearea.com
📅Schedule a Zoom Call So We Can Meet "In-Person" 
https://calendly.com/aaronmorrow/1-on-1-zoom-meeting 

This is my Intro to every Podcast and YouTube video 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

where it is. Hey everyone, it's Erumaro here and Brian Lafame. Again, I'm your host, erumaro.

Speaker 2: 0:21

I'm from Washington.

Speaker 1: 0:23

Yeah, brian is a Washingtonian, local, local realtor here in the Greater Seattle area. Brian Linder, here Washington covers all the Washington State here we're here to talk about has a key. Yes, so that is what we are here to talk about. So we talked a little bit about it on our last week's podcast, but we actually had some feedback that we'd like from you all, that you'd like us to go more in depth on this. So we thought we'd make a whole podcast episode more about it. So that is what we are doing to day. So, without further ado, yeah, I think I'm trying to remember we've a dude for too long.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Yeah, yeah, and I know we covered a little bit about it last time because, to piggyback off of what we talked about last time, we were talking about down payment assistance programs and I think the biggest eyeopening thing is people were like you can, you can house hack and use a DPA program. Like I think that was the biggest thing because a lot of people even think any type of investment property or house hacking which is technically investing, you have to do a high down payment on your funds.

Speaker 2: 1:43

Maybe you can. You bet your butt. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So I think, um, yeah, I think, I again. It's amazing that you can use a down payment assistance program to get into house hacking, which is arguably one of the smartest investment opportunities as far as the first go around on becoming an investor.

Speaker 2: 2:07

Yeah, let's define house hacking. Yes, that is being able to buy, with a single family loan, a residence where you can live in part of it and rent out the other part of it. Now, exactly especially relates to is being able to use rental income for one of those other units to offset the mortgage payment on your current on the units or on the whole thing that the property that you buy.

Speaker 2: 2:29

So you can do this anything up to four units one, two, three, four. Obviously, if you're buying one as a rental property, you will just be getting a rental and investment loan which carries a little bit higher rates and higher down payment than just an owner occupied house. But as Aaron alluded to, you can buy a duplex, which is you live in one side and rent out the other or you live on top, rental the bottom. It's two different addresses one property and you live in one and rent out the other. You can do that with the Washington State Housing Finance Commission's down payment assistance program. You can do that through our local down payment assistance program and we'll just compare which ones work best for you. For triplexes and for fourplexes you can get in for as little as three and a half percent down on an FHA or zero percent on a VA loan.

Speaker 2: 3:13

There's a lot of qualification things that we will look at. My NMLS number will be in the comments and will be in the description. I'm not offering you guys any credit. We're just talking about principles here.

Speaker 3: 3:26

Now we yeah definitely.

Speaker 2: 3:28

Now we're in suit.

Speaker 1: 3:30

Yeah, exactly Great, I think there was a bit of a delay, so we actually just went live on Instagram. So, unfortunately, all of the Instagram people right.

Speaker 1: 3:38

Good show guys didn't get any of that. There was a bit of a glitch, unfortunately. So anyone that's just tuning in on Instagram, I apologize Again. Technology, because we are we're multi streaming, so we're streaming to Instagram, facebook, linkedin, tiktok, clapper, youtube, of course, because that's where I'm hosting this, but I am so sorry. Instagram peeps, for some reason there was a glitch where it did not. My stream key for Instagram did not take, so I had to redo it. So Brian just did a beautiful definition of house hacking and you guys did not even hear it. Brian, can you give them a 10 second version, just to kind of give them because I made it up to sound good.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Yeah, none of it was true. So you know what and you know what Instagram peeps, because if any of you have been following this before, you know I re upload the actual full on video back to Instagram afterwards. So if you want to, if you want that definition later you can go back into it. But long story short. Brian was just talking about how you can use multiple different types of loans to be able to get into a property to house hack, and house hacking is essentially when you are purchasing a property that has multiple units, where you can live in one unit and then rent out one or multiple of the other units. You know you can essentially house hack up to four units without it being commercial. So if you go up to a four plex property, you can still get a non commercial, so a residential loan, and sometimes the numbers really make sense when you go up that high. Now, of course, the purchase price is going to be a lot higher on a four plex than on on a duplex, but a lot of the times the, the, the rental income that's going to be coming in you can offset. Now it always gets complicated because when you're doing these numbers, you're not just you're not just factoring in numbers to figure out if you're getting a good deal on a purchase for your house right. This is an investment property, so you're having to pencil in the numbers to make sure the house hacking is working for you right? So I know, on the last stream, brian and I talked about how, if you do a house hack right, you can get it done where you're living in the property. Basically, your housing expenses are free.

Speaker 1: 6:16

Now, in high, high cost of living areas like Seattle, la, new York, some of these areas where real estate is really expensive to, sometimes it's harder to get house hacks to be, especially when you start, like with lower doors, like duplexes, to be where they fully cover all of the cost of your of your living expenses, meaning your housing expenses, like all of the mortgage. But think of it this way if you are already in a buy a place to live as your first place that you were going to purchase, and you go into buying a duplex rather than buying a single family property, you know a house, for instance, instead of paying all of the mortgage for your house, why don't you have another renter in another unit, offset a? You know at least half of your mortgage and cover half of those housing expenses. I mean, that's what you should be doing, as, like the worst case scenario in a house hack. In my opinion, like don't do the house hack if they can't cover at least half of the mortgage, like you're not doing it right, that's not a good house hack.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Now, everyone's goal is going to be a little bit different, you know, and these are the things that we look into and these are the things I talk about with my clients. You know, but Brian, as the lender guy, he's the one that's going to be looking at the loan product and the numbers to make sure that it makes sense on the getting you approved for the loan amount. So, like, brian, maybe go into like how it works with, how you look at the numbers on to qualify for someone, on how much they qualify for, based on what you project the one of those units to rent out for. Like what does that look like when you factor that in?

Speaker 2: 8:11

So when we're using projected rent, we get an appraisal that looks at the average rent in that area for a unit like that and that's the number that we use. Right, if you already have a lease, so the seller is selling it and one setter is already rented out, we can use that. If you have history as a landlord already, we can use your actual income. If you don't have history as a landlord, then we use 75% of the rent that you take in, because we assume there's going to be some maintenance. There's going to be some times where that's not rented out.

Speaker 2: 8:38

We want to make sure that, even though we're talking about this as if it's some incredible like you can buy a house or someone else's money because they're renting out a side and you're getting zero down, we still are very careful in making sure people can pay these loans, making sure that if both sides aren't rented out, you're going to be okay. So it helps you with qualifying. Of course it does, but we're still going to make sure that you are absolutely able, if we put you in a house, that you are able to afford it and meet your financial goals. So there are a couple of different ways that we count that rental income, whether it is currently existing or is projected, and whether you have ever been a landlord or this will be your first time being a landlord.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Yeah, so those are all the factors that you're looking into you, which is great in my opinion. I'm sure it was different in before 08, a little bit different, right? Yeah, a little bit. I watched my experience with that because I wasn't operating in an 08, but I watched the Big Short.

Speaker 2: 9:35

I watched it.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Some of that happened with me, but yeah, I thought that was pretty nice If you guys haven't seen the Big Short, watch it.

Speaker 2: 9:44

It is an incredible look into some of the things that happened and you'll get like we talked about on the first and second podcasts or second and third. We talked a little bit about the internal matriculation or maturation of a market and how it can move up and down and what effects interest rates and what and that sort of thing. The Big Short goes into that really well and then they'll have a thing that's super complex, like an example that comes to mind is they have a super complex, maybe some sort of asset-backed trench investments, and then they'll explain it all. And then they'll stop and have Ariana Grande explain it to just be like, hey, you don't have to be some financial wizard or have gone to college to realize how dumb this is. Let's put it in layman terms.

Speaker 1: 10:30

And then you're like oh yeah, margot Robbie's in there. I don't like that happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I thought it was nuts. Yeah, steve Correll's in it. And who am I thinking of?

Speaker 2: 10:44

Christian Bale, the main character.

Speaker 1: 10:46

I memed you the other day with Christian Bale on a comment from one of your Facebook posts.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Oh, that's right yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:53

One of his meetings in there, because that's what it reminded me of. Oh, yes, it's incredible.

Speaker 2: 10:58

It's incredible how we allowed stuff like that to happen. And so, getting back to the house hacking and maybe this sounds too good to be true we passed a lot of very good legislation under the Dodd-French Act. We created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that protects you, the consumer, and financial transactions all the way from payday loans up to 30 or fixed mortgages. We make sure you can afford this house, but even in that, there are smart ways to take advantage and make sure that you set yourself up in the best possible position. This is one of them being able to buy four plex, rent out three units and you put three and a half percent down. That's incredible. You get to start your investment portfolio early. One of the things that I have mandated my kids do is, as soon as they get out of college, we are buying a duplex and a cosine forum or help them with the down payment, but they're starting their investment portfolio with multi-family, multi-family properties early on.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Right, exactly, yeah, definitely, yeah, no, for sure, yeah. So this house hacking Now the thing that I get into is I have a few clients that end up doing this every year. I'm surprised that it hasn't caught on more or it's not more popular, especially with younger generations, younger millennials or Gen Z, because it can be a really popular thing, or I mean it can be a really smart move and an easy entry into your first way of getting into home ownership. You know, because there are some people that could be in a situation that they wouldn't even qualify for the Seattle market. They wouldn't be in a situation to qualify to buy a single family home in a reasonably priced area for what they could get, but they could qualify to get into a duplex, a starter duplex, under the house hacking method, you know. So using looking into this strategy as a serious contender, I think would be a way to go.

Speaker 1: 13:18

Now, another thing that you could also look into is if you're having a trouble finding duplexes. One thing that I have clients think outside of the box, especially LinkedIn, if you're listening, by the way, I have a lot of my LinkedIn buyers that do this, because I have a lot of tech workers on LinkedIn that try to think outside the box and what they could do with some of their their money they've been racking up. They look for houses that either like split entry design or second kitchen or ADU anything that they can where, even if it's not a duplex not traditionally speaking they could house hacking theory where you can get another tenant in there and split it up.

Speaker 1: 14:06

But maybe, brian, go over the pros and cons as far as, like, on the lending side, of doing a non-traditional house hack, because are there any financial? What does FHA or conventional loan requirements? What can you do or can you not do? Like, for instance, if I have a client that wants to purchase a, let's say, a split entry single family home but they want to house hack that where they get a tenant in the bottom, can we do that on FHA or conventional so if you don't have a traditional duplex so it's on a dress, it's on a tree then no, you cannot use what's called border income.

Speaker 2: 14:52

So, unless you have a history of somebody that's boarding in your house and paying your rent. Now conventional loans are expanding to allow ADU income, which is awesome and, I think, something that is really really good for especially our market up here in the Seattle, tacoma, everett's and the Homish County your County, king County areas where we need more housing. We have to have more people and being able to allow sellers to add ADUs and sell that house and then a buyer to be able to use that ADU as an income to offset the mortgage is incredible. So, yeah, adu it's on separate interests, all the rules that you know as a realtor that you can go over to make something in ADU. We can absolutely do that. If you're just buying a single family house and you want to rent out a room for it or rent out the bottom floor, that's not really an ADU. No, we aren't able to use projected border income for somebody.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Not the projected income, but if someone did qualify for all of their. Now, if they already, let's say, hypothetical, they qualify for all of their own income on a single family house that they were going to be as their primary residence and they still want to rent out below and they don't care about increasing their purchase price with projected border income, they could go that route.

Speaker 2: 16:14

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 16:15

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 16:16

If you, just for yourself, are going to offset the cost, because for yourself you feel like I'm much more comfortable at this level, 100%, you can do that.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Yeah, exactly yeah. So that's something to look into. Now, it doesn't solve the issue of increasing a purchase price still in the like. We talked about doing the house hacking method, traditionally speaking, on more doors where you're doing like duplex or ADU. Now, the cool thing and we mentioned this on previous podcasts and I will also do a as more as I research it, more do a whole episode that's devoted to this but the middle housing laws that have come out and the additional sorry, the accessory dwelling unit laws that have come out for Washington State in King County we are they have made it very easy for the whole region to, with some exceptions, to be able to add an accessory dwelling unit detached, attached to to existing lots. Because, again, they really are seeing I don't wanna say housing crisis, but they are seeing the demand for needing of more affordable housing and they're making it a lot easier for you to think that way of not only being able to put more, maybe multi-generational family in one location, but have a spot for your buddies you know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 17:51

Have a spot for your renters that you can put in there, Bro, just you and the bros hanging out living together.

Speaker 1: 17:58

Heck yeah, yeah, and you know what, if you're gonna dip your toe into investing and it's gonna be your first investment, house hacking is your first time strategy might be an easier, less risky approach on multiple fronts. It's less risky financially because part of it is your primary dwelling unit, the other half you are renting out. It's less risky because you can be a little bit more. You're obviously gonna be very careful with tenant screening, but also the tenant knows you are the landlord and you live right next door, so getting the tenant in there you also might make sure the tenant is a buddy or a family member or whatnot. So your situation for that house hack the first time around might go will probably go a lot smoother than a traditional first investment property, statistically and anecdotally. So I would highly recommend in doing that.

Speaker 1: 19:08

But yeah, like I mentioned, I have a lot of investors that are doing these thinking outside the box methods where they are fully converting split entry homes into duplexes where they're just one top, one bottom. It's a duplex now or they're adding accessory dwelling units detached attached and they are creating income streams coming in on these properties. So more power to you if you can do it and again, if you would like to chat with Brian and I about how you could possibly make this happen in the greater Seattle area. Let's chat All of Washington. Brian's license on the loan side I can refer you to-.

Speaker 3: 19:54

And Oregon.

Speaker 1: 19:55

Yeah, and Oregon, if you would like to personally work with me. I primarily work in King, pierce and Snomish counties, but we would love to talk to you nonetheless about how you could make this as your possible first strategic move into home ownership. I think yeah here's the reality. It's an excellent draft.

Speaker 2: 20:17

Yeah, Go ahead. If you think how the housing market has passed you by. If you think housing is too expensive, you are right. Housing in Washington is expensive. We built 45,000 homes and we needed 250,000 last year. It's not getting better, so we have to find ways to allow it to stop passing you by, and this is one of them One of the ways that you're able to leverage assets that will continue to appreciate that you get to use as well, for very little money relative.

Speaker 1: 20:44

Exactly, and you know what People on TikTok listen up. I know I'm calling out different platforms because I have different platforms that have different pain points, that are asking me different questions, but people on TikTok are always asking me to give them these very unique they're asking for these unique solutions to their common problems, of these housing needs, and this is one of those to look into. There's no reason not to look into it. If you can qualify for an FHA loan, you can qualify for this. Look into this opportunity, yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Yeah, if you can qualify for an FHA loan and you think, oh man, all right, that payment's a little bit too much. Well, let's talk about how we can one both make the payment palatable for you so that you can still live your life and still enjoy your life and not feel like a prisoner to your home, and also start to build some wealth for you.

Speaker 1: 21:40

This is the way you can do that One hundred percent.

Speaker 2: 21:43

They can see as at all time lows, and we're seeing the cost of rent still go up, although the rate of increase is slowing. It's still good to be a landlord in this market If you can be a landlord under the same roof, because you're in a duplex or a triplex and you don't have to manage a whole bunch of properties while you're building this wealth. I think it's definitely something to look into.

Speaker 1: 22:04

If you're already looking to buy.

Speaker 2: 22:06

Why not look to this too?

Speaker 1: 22:09

I completely agree. Now, what I would also say is I think man did. I lose my turn of thought on a live stream right, guys, I'm a real person.

Speaker 1: 22:22

What, yeah? Anyways, what I would quite honestly say is one look into it as a possibility, rule it out as an option, because if, worst case scenario, you're just going to be like, okay, yeah, that wasn't for me, then if you look into it and then Brian or whatever lender you're talking to, is like, yeah, not now, then you can. Okay, well, then hopefully you're working with a lender like Brian that is going to come up with Brian's team.

Speaker 1: 22:57

I, we're going to come up with a game plan and a strategy, and a timeline to get you actionable steps on where you need to be to get you to that end result, the finish line of home ownership. Let's talk about the power of the transition. Let's say you're in that duplex, right. You're like because I'm talking to the people right now that are like I don't want a duplex as my first house, right, and that's fine, right, that's truly your condition and you don't want the duplex? I get it.

Speaker 2: 23:27

Get a triflex.

Speaker 1: 23:29

But, yeah, get a triflex or four of legs. But if you're like, maybe, aaron, I'm on the fence, talk, talk me into it, right, and I don't need to sell you on it. But like, look, look at the bigger picture. Let's say you get in that duplex and a couple years later you because you don't need to be into it forever right, you start in the duplex, you let it appreciate, it's going to appreciate in value, you let the rent offset your costs of housing expenses from the other side and it's appreciated in value, and then meanwhile it's helping you also save up your expenses, because you have less housing expenses now, because you're paying less for than what you would have been if you just continued renting.

Speaker 1: 24:25

Right now, right, or to save up for that bigger first home, that bigger move that you wanted to eventually make anyways. Now you're in a situation where you can move out of this duplex, right, and essentially now you can move on and make this strategic move into, hopefully, the next house. Now here's the beautiful thing that you can do If this duplex has appreciated in value, enough value, because a lot of people are like, well, what do we do if you know the next house that we want to buy. I can't buy that with as low of a down payment because the duplex was my first house right.

Speaker 5: 25:14

That's usually the hang-up I get from those people, yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:18

Well, yeah, for FHA go ahead. Well, that was good Right.

Speaker 1: 25:26

So what about the option of refinancing or looking at you?

Speaker 2: 25:31

Yeah, you can do it, one of two ways you could refinance the duplex into a conventional investment loan. Well, yeah, you can do it the ways You've been there a year, your property is appreciated. You want it two years. You want to take your mortgage insurance off. Maybe rate a little bit better you can refinance FHA loan into a conventional loan.

Speaker 2: 25:49

Great, Now you have a conventional owner-occupied interest rate. You're going to live there for a year or two years more before you're ready to move. At that point you can then buy a house, another FHA loan. So you can buy another house at 3.5% down, or even, in some cases, down payment assistance, because you just have to be an owner-occupant first time home buyer for many down payment assistance programs.

Speaker 2: 26:11

Option two is you can take some refinance this duplex into an investment, conventional investment loan, if you have enough equity, and then just go buy a FHA property or not a property of an FHA loan. The third option this is an option that a buddy of mine that I went to high school with became a millionaire on. He stripped his equity out of his duplex. He bought a triplex, lived in the triplex, lived in the triplex for a couple of years, stripped the equity out of that to buy the fourplex, lived in the fourplex for a couple of years, took equity out of all of them, bought an apartment building and just kept building like that. So he bought his first rental property, so he kept.

Speaker 1: 26:46

So. Stripped equity meaning selling.

Speaker 2: 26:49

No, he kept the property. He took a home equity line or cash out refi.

Speaker 1: 26:53

He locked or cashed out, and that's what I'm thinking. That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3: 26:56

He tapped into the equity that was there from the appreciation.

Speaker 2: 27:02

And.

Speaker 1: 27:02

I like that third option.

Speaker 2: 27:04

I love that third option. You keep your asset. You use this asset to pay for another asset while you're going to fill this second unit that you have been living in with another renter who will offset the cost, totally or mostly, for the mortgage that you took out in order to buy this second house. It is used.

Speaker 2: 27:22

It's the way the wealthy live. They borrow from assets to buy assets, their assets, appreciating value, and until it's realized, it's not an income tax. So when you take out that $250,000, $200,000 from your duplex to buy another house with a larger down payment so maybe you're going to live there, so you want a little bit more of a moderate mortgage payment that's not. You're not paying income tax on that. You're realizing those gains and you're not paying income tax on it. That is the way that the wealthy continue to build wealth. They don't do it through income. Income tax rates are so high, capital gains tax are so much lower and you'll see the wealthy really fight the change of capital gains taxes because that is how they make most of their money. You look at CEOs who get stock options instead of large salaries because when they sell the stocks they're taxed at 15%, not 40 plus percent the income taxes.

Speaker 1: 28:10

Yeah, I agree. So that is the way if the wealthy do it this way.

Speaker 2: 28:14

we know that the system is set in a certain way. We know it was set up by people in order to take advantage themselves of the system, so why don't we just follow that path? Success leads clues, and this is what they do in this system. Why wouldn't we do it?

Speaker 1: 28:28

Yeah, no, 100%. And imagine if you follow a decade plan where you do this and you get that dream home you were looking for and you let each of those assets work for you, where now those assets, you have them now and they're paying for that dream home now, and you got into that situation where now those assets are paying for that mortgage on that dream house and you've positioned yourself into a situation where within a decade maybe it takes longer for you, who knows but I'm just giving you a scenario where you try to you follow this path to get into that dream home that you're envisioning and you get into that dream home and these assets are working for you to get into that house and now you're not having to have your income be the one that's working so hard to be paying on this dream home that you're finally in. This is how you're going to. This would be so much more relieving for someone that is going to be completely incrementally upgrading their lifestyle. So, yeah, no, definitely it can be done.

Speaker 1: 29:43

Plenty of people do it. I have so many clients that start out with the house hacking method. I love it. One quick thing and I'm not going to go into it too much I think we're going to. I'm going to it's a little nugget and if I have enough people that want to learn more about it, I can talk more about it on our own episode. But I have.

Speaker 1: 30:04

I call it room hacking. I have a few clients that have done this where their investors in it's completely different because you can't buy a primary, you can't really buy a primary residence to do this. I mean you could. I guess it's kind of similar to what we talked about with just buying if you lived in it. But I've had plenty of investors where they buy even single family houses in there. They are expert craftsmen at understanding what those rooms will rent out for versus the whole house and they are renting out. So like, for example, I've had a client rent out a six-bedroom Olympia home and to like six different college students and rather than that whole house being 2,800 a month for rent for the whole house, they're collecting about 8K a month from room rent. Same mortgage payment, you know, same purchase price that they acquired it. You know in the 6K or 700K range for the house.

Speaker 1: 31:21

So like, these are some smart things that you can look into on how to also quickly build wealth and but, like, if these are things that you want to talk about, these strategies on how to do that, these are some things that you have to look into because it gets when you start doing those super niche types of types of strategies, then you have to really start looking into okay, what tools am I going to use? Because you can't just look into standard rents for the area. You have to really research what are rooms renting out for? Not you know what are what are the whole?

Speaker 1: 31:58

houses renting out for. But I, the first time I came across it a few years ago, I was blown away by the prospect. I was like I don't know why more people aren't doing this. But you know, there are some cities that actually have a lot, or they have. Some cities have restrictions against doing it too, so you have to check with your local municipalities to make sure that you're going to, that your city allows it, so like a limb be allows it, but I would always double check the city that you're going to buy in if you're going to do something like that.

Speaker 2: 32:32

One thing I want to show you real estate agent is so important.

Speaker 1: 32:36

Yeah, you know, I wouldn't know that. The best thing again I will as I think everyone always gets on the vibe for me on these lives is I'm super excited about everything we talk about and maybe I'm just knowledgeable enough, but there's so much I don't know that I love, I'm always researching, so I'm, I'm that guy that's like I know a lot of people that even know a lot more than me and I always look into more things. So like, if you ever ask something that stumps me, I'm always like hey, you know what? I am honest with you, I don't know the answer to that question, but I'll get an answer for you. So like that's a professional.

Speaker 5: 33:10

I don't know much yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:13

Yeah, so like I'm never, I'm never one of those people that are like I'm not going to say I'm the expert on. How could I be an expert on everything? Because then yeah, anyways, I just thought I'd throw out there. My ADD is kicking in, so I'm kind of just throwing that out there. But one thing I wanted to point out is we do have a few different video testimonials from past clients that are investors. One this investor actually bought a triplex. So I just wanted to throw out real world scenarios of investors that can can invest in triplexes, and these are things that you guys can do too. It's a realistic thing that you can approach. So I'm not going to make you listen to the whole thing here on a live stream, but you know what I'm not doing? Just a quick 12 minute YouTube video. So I feel like, if you want to watch a couple seconds of it, great, and then if you want to watch more, you can go to my YouTube channel and it's in my whole playlist.

Speaker 4: 34:18

Thank you, aaron, for all the help and the process of this was the first time for us buying an investment home and the process was truly seamless. You took the time to explain the process to us, you were very, very responsive and even after we won the bet, your team was very responsive in getting all the tasks done in time. So it was a great experience for us. It was seamless and I look forward to building our portfolio with you and I highly highly recommend you and your team, not only for investment buying but also for, you know, primary home properties. You are a great person to work with. Thank you so much, aaron.

Speaker 5: 35:00

Yeah, I would want to add that, aaron, one thing that's special about Aaron is that he understands your needs and he knows what is it that you are looking for and then recommends the properties to you so that, like, we did not have to do a lot of like while the ocean he had to, just Aaron already curated those properties, and it was just third or fourth one that we just went all out.

Speaker 4: 35:29

And he also looks at off market properties, if I'm not beyond the evidence yet, and then sends it out. It was actually the first property that we physically saw and we bought it because the curation was good and I could look at that and figure out whether or not the numbers make sense for me.

Speaker 5: 35:49

Yeah, and Aaron also helped us with creating a compelling offer which was like not.

Speaker 1: 35:56

Anyways, I don't want to bore you with the rest of it, but did you guys just hear again? I'm not I'm not trying to self-bragg here, but like that investor client, we worked so hard on the front end, doing all of the homework on the numbers, like I, and I remember the scenario like so much homework on the numbers that Once we got to the first property that I showed that was it. That was the property that made sense numbers wise and that's the one we made the office.

Speaker 2: 36:26

I think you should brag. You're not being Egotistical when you brag, but People the layman doesn't know a good agent from a poor agent. They don't get to work with people all the time and, just like every other aspect of society, there are some who are really really good, there's some who are really really bad, and most are in the middle and you are absolutely one who genuinely cares and is smart enough To to put some action behind what you care about. So, yeah, you should brag. You crushed it for this family and they're gonna be better off because of you.

Speaker 1: 36:56

Thanks, brian. Now I'm gonna make you sit through 12 more. No, I'm just kidding, I do. I do have one more here, let me. This is Keith, so he has house hacked before, but after house hacking he's also done flips and he's gone on to do he's. He's gone on to done multiple buy and holds so we call him burrs and Some of that stuff, so he's a long-term investor partner. Hey, keith, congrats again on the deal that we finally closed on.

Speaker 3: 37:30

Thank you. Thank you so much. I just want to thank you, too, as well, you know, and Congratulate you as well for all the work that you did as well, because Aaron is a great realtor. I've been doing investing for over 10 years now, and Finding a realtor that is investor friendly is not easy. Aaron goes above and beyond. He helped me out not only with with sending me deals daily on an automatic Email, but also helping me find comps as well if I needed them, if I needed them, and and he just went above and beyond I'm always making sure that I was taking the right steps to getting the deal closed correctly. He's just a great guy, great agent and, like I said, investor friendly awesome, good, and I'm glad we found this one through my wholesale connections.

Speaker 1: 38:22

Yes, and off market opportunities send me more air.

Speaker 1: 38:28

Okay, anyways. So, yeah, anyways, yeah, he's awesome work with. But yeah. So, guys, like really just I think, to sum it up, house hacking is awesome, look into it as an opportunity. If it's not for you, fine, you know. Like, look into the single family route and that's great too. I mean, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna preach house hacking as like. I'll be 100% honest with you. It's not the first route I took because I didn't really know about that opportunity when I bought had, had I known maybe it's something I could have convinced my wife on back in the day. Who knows, you know, should have, could have what. I have no clue, you know, but like now.

Speaker 2: 39:11

The reality is, the more options that you have in front of you as a consumer, better chances you are. You have to make the best choice for you. This is one that people don't think about.

Speaker 1: 39:22

Yeah, exactly, per Cicely, I was choking on my coffee. How do you? How do I do that? Anyways, good, well, folks, I think that's about it Like we don't have anyone asking any Q&A questions or anything like that does any? Hey, I'll, I'll give 30 seconds while Brian and I just chat. If anyone has questions, you can throw them in the comments. If not, we're gonna kind of wrap this, this one, up. But definitely come next week.

Speaker 1: 39:56

I think what we're gonna talk about next week is we're just gonna be looking at I know we've kind of talked about this, but I actually have some new articles to Talk about, both as far as, like, this year being a good Transition year to buy or sell. So we have some kind of more articles to kind of go into that as well. But who knows, if any of you have some other interesting topics, I might just nuke that whole idea because, again, this whole podcast has been very fluid. So it and it's been very We've been very in tuned with what our Audiences have been asking for as far as what we've been doing for this content. So if any of you have any other suggestions or what you'd like us to be chatting about, this is what we, what we're here for. This is what we're trying to Communicate to you is things that you are interested in and want to know about as far as investing, homebuying, home selling real estate in the greater Seattle area market.

Speaker 1: 40:58

So I'm not seeing any questions. But, yeah, so that's good. I guess we we just keep having this. It's gonna snow, it's not gonna snow. I know it's been snowing around the area some patches. I haven't seen it yet, though. I'm in like South King County, so also.

Speaker 2: 41:18

I don't want to hear from people outside of Washington, especially the snow, to say it's like oh my gosh, you guys got a little bit of snow and everybody shuts down. Yeah, we don't have snow plows, we're not used to that, we don't do that. We get it's a year and we love it. And then we complain about all the times where it almost comes in, doesn't? Yeah, let us. Let us have our misery, all right.

Speaker 3: 41:38

We don't have fan.

Speaker 2: 41:38

We don't pay fans to shovel out their own seats for the football game.

Speaker 1: 41:42

I'm gonna go extremely off topic, but on topic here, off topic, off real estate. But, um, I Like never watch commercials anymore because I don't have cable, we have just all like streaming services. But, um, anytime there's like a particular like reality TV show that my wife wants us to watch together, sometimes I have to go to like a real niche app to do it, so, like the CW app I have to find it on.

Speaker 1: 42:10

Yeah, and the CW app still has commercials. But like with that app, um, it will play like for the whole segment of the. Whatever you're watching, it will be the same, like three commercials, and it will replay those same three commercials 20 times, you know they got sponsors to pay and that's all like yeah what I have drilled in my head now is dominoes has their own snowplow Line now, so apparently, they're out. Yeah, I was like whoa good for dominoes. They're out, you know, they're still not here plowing.

Speaker 2: 42:52

Well, they also had a whole like campaign where they filled in potholes and they're like Phil.

Speaker 1: 42:58

Dominoes. We could use that here. That is genius, we could. Yeah, we have way way too many potholes, so yeah, for sure. Well, again. So, guys, one more time Aaron Marrow, local rilter, greater Seattle area. I work with clients, both buyers and sellers King Pearson, snowmage counties, brian the flame, powered by Laflame group, powered by movement mortgage, and all the Washington state and Oregon. Apparently I didn't know that, but you know so because I only send you my.

Speaker 5: 43:35

It just happened. That's why it just happened.

Speaker 1: 43:37

It just happened, that's awesome. Do you have any of your Oregon clients yet?

Speaker 2: 43:45

No, we have been referring them out forever, and so I got bullied into doing it, and so, just like last week it happened and we're doing Mississippi as well.

Speaker 1: 43:53

Whoa, that's like random, which only okay.

Speaker 2: 43:56

I know we had a we had a really great business partner move down to Mississippi. I think it's court ordered because I don't agree with people having to live in Mississippi. I'm you know thoughts and what you did in the past life to deserve Mississippi, but whoo, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 44:14

I hope this algorithm doesn't like jump off on YouTube and like it's.

Speaker 2: 44:18

I hope it does Recommend a bunch of people for other states.

Speaker 1: 44:20

Oh my gosh, I feel like I got a time. I'm gonna have to put in the comments. Aaron does not endorse the the rhetoric that Brian Laflame On on loan officer referrals, I would send them out.

Speaker 2: 44:34

I'm like, hey, I need a loan officer who lives in Kentucky, but not by choice, because I don't trust anybody who lives there by choice every state. I would say something about like, hey, you know how? Why? What is that? There's more people than teeth in Missouri. So, no, you don't live there, I don't care, we'll make fun of watching. It's just a funny joke and people started to get offended by it, like I don't really think this, I'm just being dumb.

Speaker 1: 44:54

Yeah, 100%. So, oh, man, I want us to roast your state.

Speaker 2: 44:59

Put it in the comments and we'll roast your state which state are we coming after?

Speaker 1: 45:03

Yeah, oh gosh. But in all seriousness, if you guys want to reach out to us, I am always, whatever social media platform you're on watching this live video, I always pin my contact info and Brian's contact info. My favorite contact method is a one-on-one zoom, and if you do that and you want Brian there too, I love to Real I'm in.

Speaker 2: 45:26

So just let me know, zooms are the bestest, the best that ever bested they are.

Speaker 1: 45:31

They are. So we'll chat with you. And even if, like you, came from this one and you don't want to talk about house hacking, but, like you're like, hey look, I want to talk about something real estate related, that's cool too. So, yeah, reach out to us.

Speaker 2: 45:45

Other than that, thank you what or if you want to just make fun of a state with us. You want to make fun of a state with? Okay.

Speaker 1: 45:51

Sure, we'll have, we'll, we'll say 15 minutes to make fun of other states, if that's yeah. So other than that, see you guys next time.