The House Hacking Strategy: How to Use Your Home to Achieve Financial Freedom

by Craig Curelop

In total, closing costs will typically be 2 to 5 percent of the purchase price of the property.

This is the negotiation piece of the offer. In your offer, you can suggest that the seller pays all of the closing costs, or that it be split evenly.

Typically, you will have your agent talk to the seller to see what they want to take with them when they go. This is usually a very easy conversation and they leave everything you would expect.

Because you need to treat them equally, you can still deny them tenancy based on a number of factors such as: credit score, background history, or insufficient income.

That’s not the goal. This should be passive. In Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth he writes, “Work ON your business, not IN your business.” His point is that if you get caught up in the minutiae of your business, you will have trouble scaling.

There are plenty of rules of thumb out there when it comes to screening tenants to make sure they are financially responsible. The two that I live by are: Monthly gross income must be 3x the rent payment Credit score must be above 600

Cozy (same company that does rent payments) offers a way to run a credit and background check for only $40.

By always referencing your quality of standards, you let your potential tenants know that you are not declining them for personal reasons.

cannot stress enough how important it is to have standards, write them down, and stick to them. Countless times landlords have been accused of discrimination for not having any standards to reference.

One that I recommend is called www.RentPrep.com. RentPrep has three services, which include basic, pro, and platinum ranging from $20 to $40. The pro package usually suffices which includes:

If you decide to have the tenant do the application themselves, then I would recommend www.Cozy.co (as I have mentioned).

If you can prove to the lender that you have a tenant ready to move in to this next property with a signed lease and a corresponding security deposit, they will use that income against your debt and you will likely be able to qualify for the next property.

NWROI = (cash flow + mortgage paydown + appreciation) / initial investment

Through blogs like Mr. Money Mustache, Mad Fientist, 1,500 Days to Freedom, BiggerPockets, and others, she discovered various tactics that allowed her to save an increasing amount of money.