Shayla Cristie used to pay around $1,400 a month in rent alone. Although that tends to be the average these days, she saw the experiences others had home buying and house-hacking, and thought perhaps it was time she give the good ol’ purchasing strategy a try.

Not only did she find a great place, but through house-hacking, Shayla now pays around $300-400 a month in monthly expenses, and her ENTIRE mortgage payment is covered. She has implemented numerous house-hacking strategies - from full time tenants, to Airbnb, to living with a significant other. She even recently refinanced her home!

So if it’s not clear by now - this lady is a pro, and someone you could really learn a lot from. But let’s hear her story from her own words. Want to learn about Shayla’s process and how her full home buyer journey went down? Keep reading! Want to find an affordable home to call your own? We’d love to see you at one of our workshops or let’s set up a call!

Hi, I’m Shayla Cristie, and I’ve lived in Austin for 4.5 years. 

In September of 2018, at 29 years old, I was paying just over $1,400 including rent and utilities in an apartment I didn’t even really like. This is when I decided to put that money toward something that would actually contribute toward my long-term wealth plan. 

I wasn’t sure where to start, but luckily I found Kristina Modares who had a bunch of content available online and a book to help first time home buyers. I looked at several houses, but one in particular caught my attention. It was $29k over what I wanted to spend, but I decided to look at it anyway. As I dismissed the idea that the house could become my home, Kristina gave me several ideas for ways I could make it happen if I really wanted to. “You can rent out a room and even AirBNB the other.” I hadn’t even considered doing that before, but I crunched the numbers and decided I could do it if we negotiated the price down. 

I bought my 3 bed, 2 bath house in 78724 off of 183 and E MLK. It’s about a 10 minute drive east from the UT football stadium. My house was listed for $289,000 and we negotiated down to $281,000. It was fairly turnkey and didn’t require much work. With a conventional, 30 year mortgage, my payments, including taxes and insurance, were around $1,912 at a 4.875% interest rate. Alone, this would have been far too much for me to handle, but I had a plan...and by no means was it an expert plan. It was a fumble/fake-it-till-you-make-it type of plan. 

I posted on the Girls New to Austin Facebook page and found my roommate of now almost 2 years. She moved from Kansas, sight unseen, and became my roommate 3 days after I closed. I bought a few cheap items off of Craigs List, furnished the 2nd guest room, and found a travel nurse who needed a 3-6 month stay. Both paid $800/month which included utilities, so I paid the additional $300 of the mortgage, the $300-$400 in monthly utilities, the HOA and other random home expenses. My total monthly expenses came out to around $700ish.

After my travel nurse roommate moved out, I decided to try AirBNBing the room out. Some months were better than others, but I averaged just under $800/month. In March, my boyfriend moved in and we turned the 2nd guest bedroom into a YouTube studio as we are both building our own businesses. This month I refinanced my home to get a 3% interest rate. This is going to knock about $300 off of my monthly mortgage payments which will allow me to cover some major home expenses.

Buying my first house was scary. In fact, I almost backed out during the option period due to fear, but not backing out is the best thing I ever did. My monthly expenses went from $1,400/month and are now down to about $300-$400/month (not including misc. home repair expenses). Each month my mortgage is paid, I am investing money into my future. I’ve lived with some incredible people from different parts of the world.

And, one incredible, but unexpected benefit has been becoming part of the Open House Austin community. I had no idea I would end up meeting so many other homebuyers, entrepreneurs and female investors. What I’ve learned from this community expands far beyond just buying my first home. Beyond building my confidence in investing in real estate, I’ve learned about being authentic, that it’s ok to not be perfect and about giving back. Through this community I finally found the courage to start my own personal and professional development coaching business. 

If you are worried about the costs associated with buying a house, there are so many ways to be creative to make the numbers work including having roommates, doing AirBNB, different types of loans, putting less than 20% down, refinancing, etc. The one thing I want to emphasize though, is that you don’t need to fully know what you are doing to start taking action. Please, please, please don’t think you need to “get it right.” There is no right. Just take whatever that next step is for you, whether it’s attending a webinar to learn about the process or connecting with a loan officer to create a plan to build your credit, just take that next step, then the next, then the next!