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Real Estate Expert / Host
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Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
The murder of an 18 year old girl in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story.
Real Estate Expert / Host
America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns.
Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
Listen to Graves county on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and to binge the entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.
Dr. Elizabeth Poynter
Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Poynter, chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Atria Health Institute in New York City. I'll be talking to top researchers and clinicians and bringing vital information about midlife women's health directly to you.
Real Estate Expert / Host
100% of women go through menopause. Even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it?
Dr. Elizabeth Poynter
Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Poynter on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Real Estate Expert / Host
If you have a swimming pool, I'm not sure if you guys. Have you ever heard of a thing called swim?
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
No?
Is that when you rent the pool?
Real Estate Expert / Host
You can rent. You can rent your. You can rent out your backyard?
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right?
Real Estate Expert / Host
You can run out your backyard. You can run out your pool. Like I have one of my mentees every year she rents out her backyard, her pool here in New York, and it pays her mortgage for the year. Like it's, it's incredible, right? Because people treat that like an event space for the day, right? So you can have somebody's backyard for eight to 10 hours and you're paying two, $300 an hour for the full use of their backyard and their swimming pool. So there's so many different ways to house hack and generate money with a single family or a duplex to make it more affordable. Now also here's another thing that people don't really realize is that border income, AKA if you have a roommate. What people don't know is Fannie Mae will allow you to use this border income to help you qualify for a mortgage under the Fannie Mae Homeready program. Now, the requirements is the borrower must have a history of receiving that rental income for at least nine of the past 12 months. And you need documentation, such as your lease agreement and show proof of receipt that your roommate has been paying you to essentially live in an apartment together. And then you can use that income to help you qualify for a mortgage. So to break that down just in quick layman terms, it if you are living with someone right now and you have a lease and they're on the lease with you, if they're your bonafide roommate, not just someone who's just in the house and you say, hey, they live here, no, they have to be on your lease. If you know you are in position to qualify for a mortgage faster than they are, what you should do is collect the money, their portion of the rent money from them, tell them to sell it to you, cash app it, whatever it is, and make sure you put that is on the, on the memo. January's rent, February's rent, March rent. Right. So we can document it that they've been paying you and then you go ahead and pay your landlord from your account. If you do that nine months out of the past 12, then when you go qualify for your mortgage, you can use that rental income to as part of your income to help you qualify for your mortgage. Yeah, I got where I'm going with this.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
I see, I see where you're going with this. Documentation is important. Making sure you're keeping records is important. And that goes for if you're buying an individual home, but even more so in this situation when you're trying to have investment property.
So you, you might not. You, you've unlocked something here. Let's go back a little bit. Oh, all right. If you're in a relationship with somebody, right. And we talk about 50, 50 a lot. Right on, on these different shows and podcasts. But there, that's a real thing though where somebody lives with somebody and they're contributing, they're contributing something, but most of the time they're just giving a person money. So it's usually either male or female. Somebody has a lease in their name and they meet somebody and after a while and then that person just kind of ends up living with that person. They may not never be on the lease. Correct. They're contributing financially on a certain level, but there's no real documented record of them contributing financially.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Correct.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
You're saying that boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, you're living with somebody, that that should be something that's documented. Because if it is documented, then what is it called?
Real Estate Expert / Host
So it's border income. Right. So if in that same situation you have the girlfriend just say the boyfriend and the girlfriend moves in.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Right.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Let's say that situation. The lease is in the boyfriend's name. But y' all splitting it 50, 50. As Rashad said, the girlfriend is not on the lease. Boyfriend is in position a year from now. He wants to go buy a house for them to live in. He should now put her on the lease of the apartment. And then now when she's making that contribution, don't make it on, make it cash. She should sell him a wire transfer, a cash app. Put on the memo. It's for her portion of the rent as long as we have that document. Nine out of 12 months. And then now the boyfriend goes to get pre approved and says that hey, this is my roommate. She is going to live in the house with me. Now from a lending perspective, I can use the portion of that rental income that she's paying. Let's just say it's a thousand dollars a month.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
As I was gonna say, clean, clean number. A thousand dollars a month right on the member. I'm putting $500 in toward that.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Yeah.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
At the end of the year. Let's say it's the 12 months now it's an additional $6,000 that you have in income.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Correct. That's now is going to be used for the boyfriend during his pre approval to help them qualify for more of a house. It's, it's a clean way of, of qualifying with using this roommate income because your roommates right at, at the end of the day, you're not legally married. You know, you're technically single in the eyes of the, of the law. Boyfriend and girlfriend is not a marital status. Right. Last time I checked. So you're legally single. This is your roommate. So if you do it that way now that rental income can now be used to help qualify for a mortgage.
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Real Estate Expert / Host
Downy rinse fights stubborn odors in just one wash. When impossible odors get stuck in.
iHeartRadio Advertiser
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Real Estate Expert / Host
All I know is what I've been told and that to have truth is a whole lie.
Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
For almost a decade, the murder of an 18 year old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story.
Real Estate Expert / Host
I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her.
Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
We know a story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national tv.
Hilda (Viva Betty Podcast Host)
Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Housewife helped give just to Jessica Curran.
Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist producer and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.
Real Estate Expert / Host
I did not know her and I did not kill her or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y' all said. They literally made me say that I.
Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
Took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Gas on her.
Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
From Lava for good. This is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.
Real Estate Expert / Host
America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people and small towns.
Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
Listen to Graves county in the Bone Valley feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts and to binge the entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.
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Damie Gente It's Ana Ortiz and I'm Mark and Delicato.
Hilda (Viva Betty Podcast Host)
You might know us as Hilda and Justin from Ugly Betty. We played mother and son on the show, but in real life we're best friends. And I'm all grown up now. Welcome to our new podcast, Viva Betty.
Maite Gomez Rejon (Hungry for History Podcast Host)
Yay.
Hilda (Viva Betty Podcast Host)
Can you believe it has been almost 20 years? That's not even possible. Well, you're the only one that looks that much different. I look exactly the Same. We're rewatching the series from start to finish and getting into all the fashions, the drama and the behind the scenes moments that you've never heard before. You're gonna hear from guests like America Ferreira, Vanessa Williams, Michael Urie, Becky Newton, Tony Plana, and so many more icons. Each and every one, all of a.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Sudden, like someone like comes running up to me and it's Salma Hayek and.
iHeartRadio Advertiser
She'S like, you are my Ugly Betty.
Real Estate Expert / Host
And I was like, what is she even talking about?
Hilda (Viva Betty Podcast Host)
Listen to Viva Betty. As part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
Real Estate Expert / Host
I know some people gonna say, why? Why won't she just go on the mortgage with him? This. Now we talk about divide and conquer. Let's just say now they move into this house, they get approved and they wind up separating. Right now she doesn't have a mortgage in her name. She can still go out here and buy a duplex, a single family and house, hack her life away as well. So just depending on your circumstances and your situation, if you understand real estate finance and these programs that are out there, and if you set your documentation up the right way, you can really go out here and scale at a very high level and reap all the benefits of wealth building with real estate. If you know exactly what you're doing.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
That's a very vital play. Man, I never heard that. I'm glad you broke that down before.
It doesn't have to be boyfriend, girlfriend either, because there's a lot of scenarios where somebody lives with somebody.
Real Estate Expert / Host
It could just be your college roommates.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Or it could be, could it be parent, child?
Real Estate Expert / Host
No, it can't be parent and child, right? But let's think about college roommates. Think about what's just happened in May and June. We have all these college graduates, right? Most of them have what roommates for the majority. So first of all, if you just graduated college, congratulations, right? But did you know that you can use your, your college education as your work history? You don't need a two year job history, you can use your college history as work history. Did you guys know that?
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Say that again.
Real Estate Expert / Host
So you just graduated from college, you did your undergrad, right? Four years, you're 22 years old, you're graduating, you just got a job offer from, you know, Earn your leisure Entertainment. You're going to start and you're going to be the marketing manager. You're making a base salary at a hundred thousand dollars and you have an offer letter from Earn your leisure Entertainment to start August 1st. You don't need to work at Earn your leisure Entertainment for two years. You have your college history for four years. That's your work history. You can now present that offer letter and your first pay stub and you can buy a house immediately.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
So you can use college as work experience.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Has that always been the case?
Real Estate Expert / Host
Absolutely.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Okay.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Absolutely. Right? And now if you freak it, you got that college history. Four years, you got your degree, but during college you have a single family home that you was renting out. And now your roommate is on a lease. If you do what we just said with the boyfriend and girlfriend scenario, now your roommate starts paying you and you know you have a better chance of get in the house faster than them, have them pay you. Now first of all, everybody gotta be on the same page with this.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Right?
Real Estate Expert / Host
Everybody. It got to be a team effort here. So now they pay you. Instead of paying their portion of the rent, you pay the landlord. And now you can use that border. Not only can use the offer letter from Earn your leisure Entertainment, you can also use that roommate income to help you qualify. Because now that roommate is going to move into your house with you as well and continue to be a roommate.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
And that offer letter is kind of one of those things that you kind of need to have in order for this to work. You can't just go out.
Real Estate Expert / Host
We need to show that you got a job.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Right? Right.
Real Estate Expert / Host
We need to show that you have a job. And it's a start date and you can go ahead and get pre approved. But one of the pre approval conditions is going to be, hey, when you get into contract, we need to know that you just, you, you're working. Now we need to see pay stubs from Earn your leisure Entertainment as we use in that example to show those pay stubs. So that way now, and it matches up with the income from the offer letter. Then boom, you use that. As long as your credit is good, your DTI works, you don't have to wait two years to qualify.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Yeah, that's a good hack because there's a. There's plenty of college students who. There's three roommates, but there's the one person who gets the lease. Right. If that person now looks at those two and that you're just saying it for one roommate.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Yeah.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Essentially that could be two or three. Three roommates that are paying them. So that documentation port becomes even more important.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Exactly. But the key is everybody has to be on a lease. Right? Everyone has to pay you. And then everyone has to be moving into your house because now it's border income, roommate income, and we're using that to help qualify. So it needs to sustain to the new house, right? The key. So if everybody's on the same page, this could be a home run. But here's how we even go a little bit deeper with this pause. If you buy a home that has a adu, an accessory dwelling unit on it, right? Everybody type ADU in chat. If you have a adu, you can use rental income from an ADU and it can help you qualify. So let's just say, for example, you don't have the roommates, you live by yourself, but you just graduated college and you want to use that college degree hack, right? But you might be short with rent with income to qualify. You find a house that has an adu and we can use that rental income from the ADU to help you qualify as well. And when you get into the adu, now we're going to use long term rental income to help you qualify, but that does not mean you have to have a long term tenant. You can now turn that ADU into an Airbnb Play vrbo. You can make it a content studio. There's so many different things you can, you can target midterm renters, like traveling nurses, like flight attendants, like depending on what city you live. So if you live close to airports, you live close to hospitals, right? You should be targeting homes that are closer in proximity to these areas because the midterm rental income from corporations, right? You have people who travel for corporations. They may need someone to stay for six weeks because they're doing a corporate project in a certain city. Think about what's happening. And guys, I'm gonna tell you another hack. And we've, I've talked about this on my program and I know you guys talked about, look at all the AI data centers that's being invested and built all around the country, right? You got Texas, I think there was two or three half a billion dollar projects that was launched this year. Think about it. These people are not the people who are constructing this. They're not going to be long term residents of Texas, right? They're probably coming in from all different parts of walk of life. So what do they need? Rentals. They might only be out there to do a job that's going to take six months. So what do they need? A midterm rental. They don't want to sign a year lease or a two year lease. They may need only a six month leave, eight month lease and it's going to be cheaper than the corporations putting them into a hotel because that daily rate of the hotel, that shit going to add up. You know what I'm saying? So you got to really take the current events and everything that's happening. I know you guys talk about it at scale on market Mondays. That's why you need to tap in every Monday 8pm Eastern Standard Time to see what is moving and shaking. Because all of these moves that's happening in AI, those are also real estate plays too if you're paying attention.
James (Gain Advertiser)
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Real Estate Expert / Host
Ooh, you smell amazing James.
Real Estate Co-Host / Commentator
Oh thanks mom.
Real Estate Expert / Host
I love you too.
Dr. Elizabeth Poynter
I never said that.
James (Gain Advertiser)
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Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
The murder of an 18 year old girl in Graves County, Kentucky was went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story.
Real Estate Expert / Host
America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns.
Maggie Freeling (Journalist / Narrator)
Listen to Graves county on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and to binge the entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.
Real Estate Expert / Host
I'm Eva Longoria.
Maite Gomez Rejon (Hungry for History Podcast Host)
And I'm Maite Gomez Rejun. And this week on our podcast Hungry for History, we talk oysters. Plus the Miami Chief stops by.
Real Estate Expert / Host
If you are not an oyster lover, don't even talk to me.
Maite Gomez Rejon (Hungry for History Podcast Host)
Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto oyster shells to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracize is related to the word oyster.
Downy Rinse Advertiser
No way.
Maite Gomez Rejon (Hungry for History Podcast Host)
Bring back the ostracon. Listen to Hungry for history on the.
Real Estate Expert / Host
Iheartradio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Dr. Elizabeth Poynter
Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Poynter, Chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Atria Health Institute in New York City. I'll be talking to top researchers and clinicians and bringing vital information about midlife women's health directly to you.
Real Estate Expert / Host
100% of women go through menopause. Even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it?
Dr. Elizabeth Poynter
Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Poynter on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode Date: November 1, 2025
Hosts: Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings
Theme: Leveraging roommate/border and rental income (including creative house hacking) to qualify for a mortgage, with a focus on real-life scenarios and practical documentation strategies.
In this episode of Earn Your Leisure, Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings break down lesser-known real estate strategies for homebuyers, specifically how to use income from roommates and rental units to more easily qualify for a mortgage. They discuss Fannie Mae guidelines, crucial documentation steps, and various “house hacking” approaches that can be applied whether you’re single, in a relationship, or just graduated from college. The episode is loaded with practical advice, insightful examples, and energetic banter, aiming to empower listeners with actionable wealth-building tools rooted in real estate.
[02:03–02:33]
[02:33–04:35]
[04:47–08:00]
[12:51–15:23]
[15:13–17:24]
| Timestamp | Quote & Context | |-----------|----------------| | 02:09 | “You can run out your backyard. You can run out your pool…one of my mentees every year she rents out her backyard, her pool here in New York, and it pays her mortgage for the year.” (Host, on unconventional house hacking) | | 04:19 | “If you do that nine months out of the past 12, then when you go qualify for your mortgage, you can use that rental income as part of your income to help you qualify for your mortgage.” (Host, on border/roommate income) | | 07:11 | “It’s a clean way of qualifying with using this roommate income because your roommates right at, at the end of the day, you’re not legally married. You know, you’re technically single in the eyes of the, of the law…This is your roommate. So if you do it that way now that rental income can now be used to help qualify for a mortgage.” | | 12:53 | “It could just be your college roommates...” (Host, on who can be considered for border income) | | 13:09 | “Did you know you can use your college education as your work history? You don’t need a two-year job history, you can use your college history as work history.” | | 14:18 | “Now if you freak it, you got that college history…during college you have a single family home that you was renting out…have them pay you…now you can use that border [income].” (On combining strategies) | 16:37 | “You can now turn that ADU into an Airbnb play…target midterm renters, like traveling nurses, like flight attendants, like depending on what city you live.” | | 17:10 | “Think about all the AI data centers that’s being invested and built…these people…might only be out there to do a job that’s going to take six months. So what do they need? A midterm rental. They don’t want to sign a year lease…So you got to really take the current events and everything that’s happening…” |
The episode mixes energetic financial insights with transparent, accessible explanations. The hosts maintain an upbeat, conversational style—often injecting humor and practical tips—making dense real estate finance topics approachable for beginners and seasoned listeners alike.
If you want to fast-track homeownership, especially in expensive markets, don’t overlook the potential of leveraging your roommate/rental situation. Start by getting every agreement in writing, collecting payments in verifiable ways, and maintaining clear documentation—small habits now can add tens of thousands to your buying power later.
Hashtags: #EarnYourLeisurePodcast #HouseHacking #RealEstate #MortgageHacks #FinancialLiteracy