Motivation for Newbie to Keep At It

[Jason Scharf]

I've taken action to begin looking for a multi-family home to house-hack. I've been looking at properties with an agent whom I've felt comfortable with so far. I've only looked at 4 properties. Here are the trends I am seeing:

-Many properties are preoccupied with some tenants being month to month and others not

-All of the homes need updating, some more than others that need serious structural work

-The asking price range is between 100K-200K in the market I am looking in

-The rents seem to vary between 650-950 p/mth with some paying utilities and others not

-Most of the properties have laundry units for the tenants that are not coin operated

Here are my concerns:

Since I plan to make the property my primary residence it is difficult to overlook the flaws. Ideally, I visualize purchasing a property that is vacant, fixing it up to my standards and then beginning fresh with new tenants with my own rules (such as having coin operated laundry with one year leases that do not include utilities). I am not overly impressed with the tenants whom I've met so far and question whether I would have chosen them to live in one of my units. Unfortunately, the only house I saw that was vacant was a complete disaster. My agent said it would most likely be in excess of 100K to repair which may not even include desired cosmetic changes.

I guess the point of this post, while it has no direct question, is to vent a little and just get some advice to maintain my motivation. I know it's only been 4 properties, but it's a bit overwhelming. I think it is because I want to live in the property and I am concerned with my own quality of life and it is skewing my ability to look simply at numbers.

Well, that's my rant. I want to keep at it obviously and will, but any words of encouragement (and constructive criticism of course;) are welcomed.

As always, thanks Biggerpockets!