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House Hacking: The Only Real Estate Investing Strategy You Need to Build Wealth, Live for Free (or almost free), and Make Money Through Homeownership.
"Ben has laid out exactly what works in today's market!" -Brandon TurnerLUXURY house hacking! Upgrade your lifestyle while reducing costs. AirBnB, vacation rentals, and a luxury primary home.
Who is this Book For?Having involved myself with House Hacking I realized that this strategy represents a phenomenal solution for many folks. In fact there are at least 3 groups for whom this book will pave the way toward success!
First of all, I have to tell you (and this is based on 10 years of real estate investing experience) that a properly executed house hack is absolutely the most brilliant investment opportunities. This has to be the easiest CASH FLOW I've ever created (and it's substantial). If you've been studying real estate investing but haven't been able to find a way into the game - this is it!
Now, let's say that you happen to live in a very expensive market, and have been priced out of owning a home - this book will teach you how to become a homeowner. Yes, you'll need to learn some things. Yes, you'll need to do a bit of work, because not just any house will work. But, you can own a home for less than you thought because a properly structure House Hack will underwrite your cost!
Or... Let's say you are quite comfortable where you are. But you happen to have elderly parents who are struggling and it is necessary for you to relocate closer to them. The only problem is that homes are very expensive where they live, and you are not sure how to swing the cost of living. House Hacking - DONE!
Or, you are like me, and decide one day that you are tired of living in Ohio and want to relocate someplace where the skies are always blue and palm trees are always pretty. You (like I) want to 10X your life. However, in a market like this property can be expected to be more expensive and you are concerned about cost of living. How to cope? Indeed, a proper house hack allows me to achieve locational freedom!
A House Hack is a powerful formula capable of creating solutions for a wide variety is life circumstances. And in this book I will teach you how to do it right!
And, remember -- I am doing this as we speak. So, all of the numbers are real-time, and all of the methods discussed are viable in today's market.
What Will You Learn in this Book?You will learn how to pick the right location and the right property for your house hack. You will learn the step-by-step process of doing the math, financing, marketing, and running your house hack for most profit.
Everything you need to know to do what I do is here!
What is a house hack and how can I make money with it?Can house hacking pay for my primary-home mortgage?Should I buy an investment property or should I house sack?A House Hacking Case Study—How I am living in an upscale home for (almost) freeHow do I choose the best location, neighborhood, and house to house hack?How much money can I make house hacking and does it pay my primary mortgage?How do I rehab and market my house hack for the most profit?How much time does it take to run a vacation rental house hack?Is AirBnB, or HomeAway, or VRBO better for vacation-rental house hacking?How do I handle safety and privacy when house hacking?Will my mortgage allow me to rent out part of my property?What taxes do I have to pay with house hacking?What are the regulations on house hacking?How do I set prices on AirBnB and other sites?And much more…Why now is the time
Who is this Book For?Having involved myself with House Hacking I realized that this strategy represents a phenomenal solution for many folks. In fact there are at least 3 groups for whom this book will pave the way toward success!
First of all, I have to tell you (and this is based on 10 years of real estate investing experience) that a properly executed house hack is absolutely the most brilliant investment opportunities. This has to be the easiest CASH FLOW I've ever created (and it's substantial). If you've been studying real estate investing but haven't been able to find a way into the game - this is it!
Now, let's say that you happen to live in a very expensive market, and have been priced out of owning a home - this book will teach you how to become a homeowner. Yes, you'll need to learn some things. Yes, you'll need to do a bit of work, because not just any house will work. But, you can own a home for less than you thought because a properly structure House Hack will underwrite your cost!
Or... Let's say you are quite comfortable where you are. But you happen to have elderly parents who are struggling and it is necessary for you to relocate closer to them. The only problem is that homes are very expensive where they live, and you are not sure how to swing the cost of living. House Hacking - DONE!
Or, you are like me, and decide one day that you are tired of living in Ohio and want to relocate someplace where the skies are always blue and palm trees are always pretty. You (like I) want to 10X your life. However, in a market like this property can be expected to be more expensive and you are concerned about cost of living. How to cope? Indeed, a proper house hack allows me to achieve locational freedom!
A House Hack is a powerful formula capable of creating solutions for a wide variety is life circumstances. And in this book I will teach you how to do it right!
And, remember -- I am doing this as we speak. So, all of the numbers are real-time, and all of the methods discussed are viable in today's market.
What Will You Learn in this Book?You will learn how to pick the right location and the right property for your house hack. You will learn the step-by-step process of doing the math, financing, marketing, and running your house hack for most profit.
Everything you need to know to do what I do is here!
What is a house hack and how can I make money with it?Can house hacking pay for my primary-home mortgage?Should I buy an investment property or should I house sack?A House Hacking Case Study—How I am living in an upscale home for (almost) freeHow do I choose the best location, neighborhood, and house to house hack?How much money can I make house hacking and does it pay my primary mortgage?How do I rehab and market my house hack for the most profit?How much time does it take to run a vacation rental house hack?Is AirBnB, or HomeAway, or VRBO better for vacation-rental house hacking?How do I handle safety and privacy when house hacking?Will my mortgage allow me to rent out part of my property?What taxes do I have to pay with house hacking?What are the regulations on house hacking?How do I set prices on AirBnB and other sites?And much more…Why now is the time
229 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 12, 2017
47 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 4, 2018
I am doing a similar house hack and the info Ben presented in the book is spot on! If you have read his blog or Interacted with him on BiggerPockets, you will immediately recognize his deep thinking yet easy going style of communication. This book stands as an excellent case study in how to prepare mentally for your house hack, and the knowledge you need to go along with it. If you are interested in house hacking and do not want to slog through boring technical books do yourself a favor and pick up this book. It is well worth your time!
July 27, 2017
Kindle Unlimited but came across it on a freebie day.
The first part of the book is a foreword that goes on for quite a few pages, followed by nonsensical roaming of thoughts or whatever that don't actually have much to do with what the book is actually supposed to be about just a lot of what I call 'feel good power word babbles' so goes on for a while but actually informs reader of nothing concrete. There are several links to the writer's book{s}. Then there is more taken up by once again being told what is in the book {table of contents type thing, which is not the same one that started the book}.There is jargon used that even I don't understand, and I have an accounting degree which included various real estate and business classes, legal and otherwise. The 'cost' of owning something, but under a mortgage, does state the montly mortgage cost but does NOT cover house insurance and other protection, unless this is included in all mortgages {which it is NOT} so should have actually been detailed as should different fees when selling a house as they can be quite substantial and cut in to profits, much the same as fees as well as insurance and repairs for rental properties.
Much the same can be said about the different type of corporations that could be formed and a bit about why, but nothing else much on the subject and was confusing even to me. There is a lot of talk about different things and different possibilities, but no real play for doing any of it. As the chapters go on, even more yak yak yak and nothing even semi-solid for information, and in fact it comes off as an infomerical. I also have a mensa level English level, and no idea what some of these words/terms were meant to mean, and again that is with legal and real estate background. More than a bit ridiculous to not have certain terms and abbreviations or acronyms stated out, yet have the same blah blah repeated over and over then it added nothing actually to the supposed point of the book. Even with the accounting and legal and other backgrounds, I found my eyes wanting to cross at this sad attempt of an infomercial, and worst of all, even with that background it was BORING.
More so because of the blue higlights {links to his various books/businesses}. The 'tables' and whatnot were overall entirely useless and what I refer to as 'book filler' to make them longer but not more informative. As the book says, definitely NOT any type of accountant; the numbers are skewed {wrong} because there is an overall limit anyone can be taxed through FICA, an with the case of married/joint taxes there is still a limit {and deductions} for income from various sources.Then it once again goes repitious with things already {somewhat} covered, but with basically the same basic 'information' as from before. Finally, the book was obviously not proofed well, for content, context, spelling and other errors, or just for making sense. **There are a few different places that have legal disclaimers, that the writer is not a professional in legal, accounting, real estate, or any other matter in the book....
The first part of the book is a foreword that goes on for quite a few pages, followed by nonsensical roaming of thoughts or whatever that don't actually have much to do with what the book is actually supposed to be about just a lot of what I call 'feel good power word babbles' so goes on for a while but actually informs reader of nothing concrete. There are several links to the writer's book{s}. Then there is more taken up by once again being told what is in the book {table of contents type thing, which is not the same one that started the book}.There is jargon used that even I don't understand, and I have an accounting degree which included various real estate and business classes, legal and otherwise. The 'cost' of owning something, but under a mortgage, does state the montly mortgage cost but does NOT cover house insurance and other protection, unless this is included in all mortgages {which it is NOT} so should have actually been detailed as should different fees when selling a house as they can be quite substantial and cut in to profits, much the same as fees as well as insurance and repairs for rental properties.
Much the same can be said about the different type of corporations that could be formed and a bit about why, but nothing else much on the subject and was confusing even to me. There is a lot of talk about different things and different possibilities, but no real play for doing any of it. As the chapters go on, even more yak yak yak and nothing even semi-solid for information, and in fact it comes off as an infomerical. I also have a mensa level English level, and no idea what some of these words/terms were meant to mean, and again that is with legal and real estate background. More than a bit ridiculous to not have certain terms and abbreviations or acronyms stated out, yet have the same blah blah repeated over and over then it added nothing actually to the supposed point of the book. Even with the accounting and legal and other backgrounds, I found my eyes wanting to cross at this sad attempt of an infomercial, and worst of all, even with that background it was BORING.
More so because of the blue higlights {links to his various books/businesses}. The 'tables' and whatnot were overall entirely useless and what I refer to as 'book filler' to make them longer but not more informative. As the book says, definitely NOT any type of accountant; the numbers are skewed {wrong} because there is an overall limit anyone can be taxed through FICA, an with the case of married/joint taxes there is still a limit {and deductions} for income from various sources.Then it once again goes repitious with things already {somewhat} covered, but with basically the same basic 'information' as from before. Finally, the book was obviously not proofed well, for content, context, spelling and other errors, or just for making sense. **There are a few different places that have legal disclaimers, that the writer is not a professional in legal, accounting, real estate, or any other matter in the book....
July 11, 2019
Unfortunately this just isn’t a good book. First and foremost, it probably shouldn’t have even been titled “House Hacking.” A more appropriate title would have been “House Hacking Through Short-Term Rentals” because more than 50% of the content is specific to listing a vacation rental on Airbnb or Vrbo. Do not even consider buying this book unless you are specifically interested in that strategy; house hacking via long-term rentals in a small multifamily is not covered at all (except to describe the various reasons it’s said to be inferior to vacation rentals). The extended blurb on Amazon seems to intentionally conceal this fact...
This feels less like a book than a collection of loosely related blog posts. The formatting is irregular which leads to the book containing a lot of blank space. There are a ton of errors (typos, grammatical mistakes, poor or incorrect word choices, misused idioms...) and several instances of HYPERLINKS appearing in the physical text. Having any mistakes - let alone this many - is simply unacceptable for a $15 print book. It suggests to me that not only was the book never proofread or edited by anyone, it was probably never even re-read a single time by the author himself. The fact that he repeatedly boasts about how he rushed to publish the book in order to get the information out to us faster (even though he also acknowledges he hasn’t been successfully using the strategy for long enough to justify his expertise) thereby generating even more passive income for himself makes this all feel a bit insulting.
As for the content itself, it’s there but it’s shallow because it’s all so specifically tailored to the author’s singular experience with house hacking. There could have been a good book here - I’ve heard the author appear on podcasts and he genuinely seems both knowledgeable and likable. If this were a 99 cent eBook I wouldn’t have batted an eye, but when you so clearly phone something in like this you can’t be selling it for $15. I’m positive you could find all of this information for free elsewhere, with better presentation.
And yes, he drives a Tesla Model S.
This feels less like a book than a collection of loosely related blog posts. The formatting is irregular which leads to the book containing a lot of blank space. There are a ton of errors (typos, grammatical mistakes, poor or incorrect word choices, misused idioms...) and several instances of HYPERLINKS appearing in the physical text. Having any mistakes - let alone this many - is simply unacceptable for a $15 print book. It suggests to me that not only was the book never proofread or edited by anyone, it was probably never even re-read a single time by the author himself. The fact that he repeatedly boasts about how he rushed to publish the book in order to get the information out to us faster (even though he also acknowledges he hasn’t been successfully using the strategy for long enough to justify his expertise) thereby generating even more passive income for himself makes this all feel a bit insulting.
As for the content itself, it’s there but it’s shallow because it’s all so specifically tailored to the author’s singular experience with house hacking. There could have been a good book here - I’ve heard the author appear on podcasts and he genuinely seems both knowledgeable and likable. If this were a 99 cent eBook I wouldn’t have batted an eye, but when you so clearly phone something in like this you can’t be selling it for $15. I’m positive you could find all of this information for free elsewhere, with better presentation.
And yes, he drives a Tesla Model S.
March 9, 2022
Great book on real estate investing. As a real estate agent, this was great information. "I had all the info and tools for making decisions in my head to make sure you got your first home." Here is what he said of his success with Kettles: "When I came up against such an attractive looking property that didn't seem worth listing at $100 million or more it just made me look into buying something else because everything seemed so much better out there… The ability [to] get back over these mountains from New Jersey where our kids live helped as well – they have nowhere really big enough but we're not going anywhere soon which makes things even easier after moving here!"
January 26, 2020
Learned a lot about how to better afford a primary residence through renting out part of it. I don't think I could deal with my renters in a duplex but if I could find a house with a setup similar to the author's then I would definitely consider purchasing.
My only complaint is that it seemed as though the book was first written as an online book. It really should have been reformatted before publishing. The URL links and smiley faces embedded in the text cheapen the information.
My only complaint is that it seemed as though the book was first written as an online book. It really should have been reformatted before publishing. The URL links and smiley faces embedded in the text cheapen the information.
July 30, 2017
Awesome Practical Advice
A very easy and common sense read. Seems like Ben is talking right to us in a pleasant conversational tone.
This covers Ben's purchase of his new home and "Casita" that he rents out with AirBNB. I could not put it down!! Tons of useful info on this new industry.
A very easy and common sense read. Seems like Ben is talking right to us in a pleasant conversational tone.
This covers Ben's purchase of his new home and "Casita" that he rents out with AirBNB. I could not put it down!! Tons of useful info on this new industry.
August 24, 2017
This was a really bad book. Conceptually simple (AirBnB your sub-unit!), very poorly, if at all, edited (full of typos, grammatical errors and poor use of language), and all around lazily written.
If learning about Real Estate is your goal, I would say skip this. No ill-will toward the author, I'm sure he's talented. He just mailed this one in.
If learning about Real Estate is your goal, I would say skip this. No ill-will toward the author, I'm sure he's talented. He just mailed this one in.
September 3, 2024
Solid overview of house hacking geared towards beginners. Almost a little too surface level, found it a little too casual. Came away feeling a little more comfortable with the whole process and what to look for in a good house hack. Short-term rentals are where it’s at for maximum cash flow. Overall, a quick starter overview to house hacking.
December 5, 2017
Alright
Interesting to see ones perspective and acquired model in real estate of his location. Bragging at times was eye rolling, and yes I think the author has a Tesla if I had not read that enough.
Interesting to see ones perspective and acquired model in real estate of his location. Bragging at times was eye rolling, and yes I think the author has a Tesla if I had not read that enough.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews