I House Hacked a Triplex — Now I Only Pay $140 a Month in Los Angeles

Many people have a goal of house hacking the traditional way. Buying a duplex, renting out half, and living for free. The only problem, these deals don't really exist anymore, but it can still be possible in slightly larger multif family buildings. Meet Sam. She bought a rundown triplex for 1. 5 million, renovated it, and is now able to live almost for free. — I'll be paying around $144 of my mortgage after the rent. — Today, we're going to take a tour of the property, look at the before and after transformation. I'll break down the renovation costs and we'll talk about how it's possible for you to do this, too. And before we start, if you're new here, my name is Shelby Church. I'm a real estate agent working on a Compass team based in West LA. And Sam, who is in this video, is also an agent who specializes in architectural properties on LA's east side, the canyons, and all across California. You're looking to buy or sell in LA. I'll have a form down below where you can get in contact with either of us. And now, let's take a look at this property. Welcome to the Silver Laurel. This is a fully renovated circa 1968 mid-century modern triplex in the heart of Silverlake. We brought it back to its original period specific roots after a long series of landlords who didn't care about design and preservation. When I bought the building, this was covered in the '9s. It was enclosed into the living space. So, we basically like blew out the drywall and restored the balcony to its original grandeur. Yeah, it was listed for 172, I think, and I closed at 1565. — This is not your typical landlord special. Sam took a very design forward approach to this renovation. We installed these like clay pavers that just give a much more organic feel. This was where the trash cans actually used to live and we like fully landscaped it. So eventually it's like a privacy hedge against the building next door. All of these exterior walkways were actually they were carpeted. There was concrete and then carpet on top of them. Tore up all of that carpet, reinforced the concrete and then also with the landscape company added this tile. — The landscaping looks incredible but it was not cheap. The landscaping and all the exterior tile and everything cost around $74,000, which was the biggest expense of the property. When you hear landscaping, it's not just plants, you know, it's tile on every surface. — It's grading the hillside. It's not Home Depot plants. These are like native varieties that are really like hyper specific to what it would look like in the '60s. And this is unit one. Fully renovated completely everything here. It was originally the product of a terrible '8s remodel. — Sam put in the standard new floors, new paint, and some other fun additions. — Since I originally thought this unit was going to be for me, I was trying to spend as little as possible. So, we kept the original cabinets here. There also used to be like a full wall of cabinets up here. — That just really felt like claustrophobic. — We added two skylights in this unit. One right here, which just changed the game for natural light. I think this is something that more landlords should consider because it makes the unit a lot more appealing. So, these doors right here are another thing you very rarely find in a rental, but I think it's a really cool ad. The wall to the living space originally ended here. It was here. These were two closets. I found the original plans with the county assessor's office and we just blew these walls out and turned it back into a balcony. And it was already structurally like supported cuz that's what it was in the original design. But yeah, these doors are certainly a favorite. Yeah, we also added these traditional globe lights. This kind of like modernist circular lighting is really common in the mid-century era. This bathroom was such a heavy lift. Beforehand, it was covered in like the worst floor toseeiling tile you've ever seen. Um, my designer and I joked it was like the prison cell bathroom. Um, and there was no skylight. We added it and it just like changed the game. — This is a really high-end and unique bathroom for a rental and it really matches the vibe of Silver Lake. Residents here are artsy and would actually appreciate this style. This unit also has two bedrooms. — Yeah. So, these rooms aren't like, you know, super special, but we did what we could. One of the things that I wanted to do was replace all of the doors with

like an original mid-century wood. Yeah, we also painted these closets cuz again the budget wasn't super high in here. What all went into the renovations? — Yeah. So, I'll break it up by unit. Unit one was 56,500 — total. — That's pretty good. Keep in mind this unit had a lot of structural changes like opening up the balcony, adding washer and dryer hookups as well as adding mini splits. — In-unit washer itself was like $10,000. And like same with the balcony, — but they're I think very worth it. — Every comp I ran for unit one was like I was not going to get the rent I wanted unless there was a unit and it makes sense, you know, people want that. They don't want to go to the laundromat, you know. — But this is unit 2. Um, also twobedroom, one bath, you know, cuz I did unit one first. I really learned what I liked and didn't like in here. It actually had been renovated more than unit one, but the renovation was kind of giving modern farmhouse and that's not really my beat. Um, so we pretty much did everything. There was tile from like 2002 that was in the kitchen and extending and we just did hardwood floors in here. Yeah, the kitchen was also renovated. When I bought it, it was like white countertops pretty boring and you know, it's the same old tile. And we kept the appliances but did everything else. We actually didn't do like full new cabinets because I don't got the money for that. So, we just refaced them and did custom cutouts. Not only is refacing more cost effective, it's also a lot less wasteful. These cabinets were not that old, and with new doors, they look so much better without having to put a bunch of cabinets into a landfill. — There were already can lights installed, but the can lights they had looked like they could have been in a hospital. It was just so bright. And the new can lights, you can actually adjust the Kelvin level on the sides. But yeah, this unit actually had washerd dryer installed, and it also had central HVAC installed, which was great. Okay, so this bathroom is probably my favorite room in the entire building. Beforehand, it was in the modern farmhouse camp of things and we just totally, you know, restored it. I wanted to do floor to ceiling 4x4 tile because these kind of like wrapped baths and synonymous finishes is something you would totally see in like a ' 60s or like a '7s property. The bedrooms are very similar to the other unit. Also hardwood, also tulip lights. — And this unit also has two bedrooms, but this unit already had recessed lighting, which is an upgrade. — Unit two was um 41,300. — Wow. A little less. — Yeah, cuz there was like I didn't have to buy appliances, — right? — And I also didn't um add in washer and I didn't break out a balcony. — The units themselves total around $90,000. Yeah, — it's not too bad. Is that more or less of what you expected? — Way more. Yeah, it just, you know, I like you want to do things right, it just costs money. It's not easy to spend like less than that for doing two bedrooms, one bath, and like trying to get the kind of rents that I want. Yeah. I also commissioned for a custom sign on the front of the property. — Love it. um from like an iron worker in Long Beach. That was about like $4,000 for like the silver laurel — and like the custom numbers for each unit. I think total I'm at um around like 160 I think. — The renovation costs ended up being about $164,000 total. — Let's talk about the rent that you're able to get. — Yeah, so unit 2 um was just rented at 4,200. I'm still working on unit one and it's listed at 4,400 cuz it has that premium of private outdoor space. — So the total rents for the two units is nearly $9,000 and Sam still lives in the last unit and plans to renovate it over time. — So yeah, and then you live in the last unit and so you'd probably rent out to a roommate for what do you think? — Yeah, it's the room is really small, but there's a private bathroom and a lot of people want to live in Silver Lake. It's very — desirable. And you could walk to some stuff from here. — And in my estimates, I'm conservatively estimating like,300. — Um, even though I think I'm likely going to get more than that once I like finish, you know, putting in furniture. — What is like your monthly cost on the property? — Yeah. So, my monthly the mortgage, taxes, insurance is about 10,000. 10,39. — So, then you're able to cover almost — almost all of it. Um, I'll be paying around like $144 of my mortgage after the rents — after. Yeah. With a roommate. Yeah. — There are caveats like I um water and gas aren't separately metered for the property. — So, I have to just incur those costs. — Um, and there's also like landscaping and you know there's this thing when

people are doing multif family investing, you have to budget for capex. — Totally. — Which is like capital expenditures like the roof. The roof's going to have to get replaced in like 3 years and like that's going to be like 25 grand. — So you're essentially living for depending on the utility expenses 500 to a,000 a month — probably. Yeah. — Are you seeing more deals like this lately? — Yeah. I think it's like it's certainly a buyer market in LA. There's just not a lot of multif family buyers right now. — If you are willing to like go out there and make a deal, you know, like things can happen. This was originally listed at 17 which was out of my price range and you know I waited like 2 months and I like won it. — Were you nervous about taking on the project? — Oh my god, I was terrified. I was like it was such a big project and it was just me. Like I had a friend who was helping me with the design. — Um Carla Touts, she's my rock. She helped me through it. But it was not like I didn't hire her for the project. So it was making me manag I also feel like you know there's not a lot of precedent of like queer people investing in like multif family or in real estate period — and it is and honestly it's like a lot of men. It's a lot of — old men. When you're the first at something or when you're early in a category it can feel intimidating. You got to feel the nerves, but then you just have to like I just realized that there were more important things than fear. — So, all in all, pretty impressive. She got a great deal on the property, renovated it in a really cool design forward way, and is now able to live almost for free, just dealing with maintenance and utilities. And if you're interested in doing something like this, fill out the form below and we can help you find something. Okay, I hope that you guys enjoyed this video. Hope that you learned something. It was super interesting and fun for me to make. All right, that is going to be it for this video. I hope that you guys enjoyed and I will see you in the next one. Bye.