0 6
M A R E I
|
G E T T I N G
S T A R T E D
If you start with house hacking as a young adult instead of the normal housing options (renting or buying a house), you can build much more wealth over the years.
My First House Hack B Y
C O A C H
C H A D
C A R S O N
Early in my 20s as a recent college grad, I was living cheap and flipping houses. I actually lived in the spare bedroom of my friend and business partner’s house. My bed was in the corner surrounded by storage boxes! It was inexpensive housing, but I wanted a place of my own. And because I enjoyed paying little to nothing for housing, a house hack was a perfect next choice. A friend told me about a vacant, foreclosed fourplex building in my small college town that needed A LOT of fixing up. I can just imagine the foreclosing banker showing up with a nice car and fancy shoes to see “Merry Christmas” spray painted across the
front! Ha! I doubt he even made it out of his car. Before you think all house hacks are this nasty, keep in mind that this was ultra ugly. My motto in real estate is the uglier the better (because you get it cheaper). And this was clearly the worst property in a decent neighborhood close to the campus of Clemson University. But there are many house hack opportunities without this much work. The choice is yours. And don’t worry. I didn’t move into that nastiness. We fixed it up, and pretty soon it was a warm, cozy home. After a few months and some help from
repair contractors, my house hacking home was ready. I moved into unit #2, and I rented the other 3 units out to tenants who loved the upgrades. The upgrades included four new central heat and air units, replacement windows, exterior paint, landscaping, a community garden, dishwashers, paint, new lighting/fans, back decks, and new floor coverings. Here are a few of the pictures after repairs were finished (you’ll notice that my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, loved bright colors). Turning the building around was a lot of fun. And I also enjoyed living there. In fact, I liked it so much that this was the first home that my wife and I shared
