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I've heard of singles who make decent money renting out a room or two, maybe even a couple renting out a room. But a married couple renting out all three extra rooms seems just seems a bit extreme, and I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area where housing is very expensive.
Review the comment regarding cultural differences.
Review the comment regarding cultural differences.
Renting each bedroom was my wife's idea. Her sister in Canada has been doing it for a long time, unlike Texas, in Canada, houses have basements, and her sister lives near an university town, so her sister has been getting really good rental income in the past few years.
I am not saying life is more convenient when we have strangers living with us, but for the money that we are getting each month, we are willing to make the sacrifice. I cannot see myself doing at the age of 50, but for now, it is something that we are willing to do. Even once we have our child, we will probably stop doing it.
Also, the renters that are living with us go to work in the morning, and don't come back until 7 or 8pm, they normally stay in their own rooms when they get home, so it is not that bad in reality.
People aren't saying the op can't do it.
They are saying he can't do it based on his thoughts and beliefs presently.
This is coming from people who have real estate experience. Are you saying because they are not cheering him on that they are incorrect?
Our of curiosity how many houses have you flipped?
Throughout my life, i have been told you cannot do this, you cannot do that, but in the end, i proved them to be wrong. It wasn't easy, i went thru some really stressful times, but i also wanted to succeed, so even though no one believed in me, i believed in myself, i preserved, made sacrificed and accomplished what i set to accomplish.
when it comes to flipping, like what i said in my previous replies, I fully acknowledge the fact we are nowhere close from flipping our first house, thats why i need to continue to prepare myself; get my license, use the MLS to research, talk to flippers... we will see what happens.
Maybe i didn't explain myself clearly in my reply. The $20,000 # that i used was just some arbitrary #. Obviously, if i am going to spend 1 year doing the preparation work and another 3 or 4 months flipping the house and invest $150k in the process, i don't want to lose money. Ideally, i want to make $1 million during our first flip, but obviously it won't happen.
Considering it will be our first flip, once it is all set and done, i will be extremely happy if we can end up making just a small profit. Once we have done a couple flipped houses, maybe we won't be able to make a fortune from doing the first couple flips, but if we can use that experience to help us to make our 5th, 6th flip to be profitable, i consider the first couple flips a success.
Last edited by some1livesinamerica; 01-23-2018 at 10:24 AM..
Don't electrical engineers make good money?
It seems odd to be one, have a wife working, and still be renting out all the bedrooms.
simply put, we want more. Why do i want more? you only live life once. At this point of my life, i feel like i have ability to learn new things, to work 15 hrs a day, 6 days or even 7 days a week. I want to challenge myself, to do the things that i am not ready for.
If we can learn how to flip houses successfully, we can make a lot of money from doing it, and the first couple will always be the hardest. How nice would it be if everyday, with doing minimal amount of work, i know there are people out there making money for me, and money just flows into my bank account.
The OP's problem is that he is an electrical engineer, where there is a right way and a wrong way to do most everything. He sees unsuccessfully flipping a house as doing 'it' the wrong way, so all he has to do is do the opposite to successfully flip the next house. The idea that there are hundreds of ways to do it wrong doesn't enter his mind.
Yes, in reality, there are multiple reasons why a profitable flip is profitable, why a unprofitable flip is unprofitable. I need to spend the time and do my research on this.
Certain non-western cultures see such behavior as perfectly normal. Privacy in ones own home isn't especially valued.
Personally I can't imagine getting up to use the main restroom in the middle of the night and have some boarder in there.
the house that we are living in is 4bed 2.5bath. the 3 renters use 1 bathroom, my wife and i live in the master, so we mainly use the master bathroom. There is also a half bath, just in case. When we saw this house at the opening house, base on our knowledge of the area, we knew we can potentially make some rent money if we can own the house.
I don't think it is culture behavior, it is more of a personal preference. I know an Arabian guy, he was a director at the company that i used to work at, told me he doesn't like to share living space with strangers. My ex-coworker lived in houses owned by caucasians and african americans.
OP, I'm not going to poo poo on your idea. Sounds like you can make it work. The trick in flipping homes is being able to accurately estimate what you're going to need to upgrade, what that will cost, and how that will affect the future sales price so you can accurately determine what you can spend when you initially buy. Remember, money is made based on what your buy price is.
Obviously the more work you do yourself, the cheaper your costs will be. That said, you're going to mess up some things (losing actual $) and spend LOTS of time learning. If you're a white collar guy making 75k+ per year, realize you're probably going to be earning $10/hr on your labor time for the first couple flips.
Sounds like you're willing to (potentially) lose a bit on your first deal, which is a realistic view point. I've seen flippers totally get in over their head and end up getting saved because of home price appreciation.
You'll be paying for an education (both financially and timewise), but sounds like you both have the attitude to make it work.
Good luck!
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