Questions on buying a multifamily home

[Luke G.]

Looking at a split level family home in Nashville to live in and rent out. Planning on living in the top unit for five years, moving to a single family home, and continuing to rent both top and bottom units. 190k is the asking price. The bottom unit rented two or three years ago for $650. From the decorating I'm guessing the owner was elderly and was tired of tenants and let the bottom unit go vacant, but that's just a guess as to why the unit was unrented. I figure it would rent now for between 700 and 850. Upstairs is much nicer and would rent between 1000 and 1250. The top unit has 1100 sq. ft. three bedrooms; the downstairs unit has 1100 sq. ft. 2 bedrooms. 3 wall heaters and a wall mounted window AC unit downstairs. There is HVAC upstairs. The house is really close to a busy road. There is an acoustic tile drop ceiling in half of the downstairs unit, loud conversation upstairs is heard downstairs, but is unintelligible, yelling can be understood. Foot noise from upstairs is fairly loud downstairs. The creaking floor is less noticeable when someone overhead is walking in the carpeted areas upstairs. The downstairs is tiled and a little dumpy, but fifteen minutes from 3 universities and a lot of musicians in Nashville are looking for cheaper rentals.

I was hoping someone could speak to these concerns:

• 1.)Lack of heat in the lower unit.
• 2.)Ability to hear upstairs in the lower unit.
• 3.)Road noise.
• 4.)Rentability of downstairs unit.