{"id":79229,"date":"2019-07-02T17:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T23:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=79229"},"modified":"2024-01-15T12:48:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T19:48:08","slug":"2016-07-31-apartment-building-deal-90-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/2016-07-31-apartment-building-deal-90-days","title":{"rendered":"How to Buy Your First Investment Duplex in the Next 90 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my article “The Smartest, Most Easily Achievable Way to Get Into Multifamily Investing<\/a>,” I make the argument that duplexes might be the perfect 90-day goal to get you started with apartment building investing and keep you on track to your goal of financial freedom.\u00a0If you read that article, you’re probably wondering, “How do I go about buying my first duplex?” So here is your checklist to buy your first duplex<\/a> in the next 90 days.<\/p>\n

The 90-Day Checklist to Buy Your First Duplex<\/h2>\n

Here’s what you’re going to do in the first four weeks:<\/p>\n

Week 1: Educate yourself.<\/h3>\n

During this week, you’re going to complete a course or seminar or read all that you can about single family house (SFH) and apartment building investing. While investing in duplexes is less complex than larger multifamily (MF), you should still know about finding and analyzing<\/a> duplexes, raising money<\/a>, and property management.<\/p>\n

Week 2: Determine your investing area.<\/h3>\n

Decide where you’re going to look. Because good duplexes are more readily available, there’s a good chance you can invest closer to home.
\n\"real-estate-market\"
\nRelated:<\/strong> An FHA-Financed Duplex is an Ideal First Investment Property: Here\u2019s Why<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Week 3: Analyze 5 deals.<\/h3>\n

Here are the steps I recommend to analyze<\/a> and track your duplexes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Go to realtor.com or loopnet and get the listings of 5 duplexes.<\/strong><\/em> Make sure you get the number of bedrooms, square footage, and the rent they’re currently getting from the listing broker. If they can supply you with expenses, that’s even better but not required.<\/li>\n
  2. Create a spreadsheet where you can track your deals side by side.<\/strong><\/em> Include the asking price, your offer price, number of units, square footage, and rental income.<\/li>\n
  3. For each duplex, create a simple profit and loss summary.<\/strong><\/em> Use the rental income supplied by the listing or real estate agent and assume you’ll have 10% vacancy per year. For expenses, you can use the realtor.com figures (towards the bottom of the listing) to calculate your real estate taxes, insurance, and mortgage payment. I suggest purchasing a home warranty plan ($450 per year) that has a $100 deductible. Then budget $100 per month for repairs (the larger items should be taken care of by the home warranty).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Then answer these questions for each deal to determine if the deal is good:<\/p>\n