How To Analyze a 3 plex To Purchase For my 1st time?

How To Analyze a 3 plex To Purchase For my 1st time?

Member since 2021 · 9 posts · 2 votes

Hello All,

I hope you all are well and staying safe out threre! I am a Realtor in Tucson, Arizona, looking to purchase a 3 plex for my own portfolio. This is my 1st time purchasing a multi-family. I am utilizing FHA 3.5 down. I found a triplex that I like and want to make an offer but want to make sure it would be a wise investment. The property is listed for 299,900.

Unit 1$635 1 1-0 589sqft 1st No
Unit 2$700 2 1-0 705sqft 1st No
Unit 3$750 2 1-0 619sqft N



Gross Scheduled Rent: 25,020
Vacancy Loss: 0
Other Income: 0
Adjusted Gross: 25,020
Total Expenses: 6,793
Net Opp Income: 18,227Analysis
Cap Rate %: 6.08
Gross Rent Multi: 11.99
Vacancy Rate %: 0
Exp/SqFt: 4.12
Exp % of Gross: 27.15

And  rents can be pushed up to market rate.  How would I evaluate this?

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  • Investor · Tucson, AZ · Member since 2016 · 29 posts · 25 votes
    4y

    Hi @Gabriel Morales

    Congrats on the find! It’s great that you have some of the numbers listed, but you’ll want to try and get rental comps for the neighborhood where the property is located. That will greatly impact rents.

    For example, you wouldn’t be able to use the gross rent or adjusted rent numbers, since you’ll technically be living in one of the units.

    The numbers also don’t account for any vacancy. In my opinion, even a nice, renovated unit should account for 5-7% minimum. And that will still be across two units, not all three.

    I would calculate as follows (based off not knowing the Tucson neighborhood in which it’s located)

    Assume you move into the smallest unit and are managing it yourself ($0 for Prop Management), you’d rent out the 705 sq ft unit and the 619 sq ft unit, each renting at about $1.2 per square foot to be conservative 


    Gross Rent [1,024 x $1.20]: $17,400

    Vacancy at 7%: -$1218

    Adjusted Income: $16,182

    Expenses

    Taxes [depends on area]: ~ -$1,550

    Insurance [might find cheaper?]: ~ -$1,200

    Management (yourself): $0

    Maintenance [est 15% gross income]: -$2,610

    Net Operating Income

    Adjusted Income (kinda) - operatinf Expenses = $16,182 - $5360 = $10,822

    NOI = $10,822

    (You're getting an FHA Loan at 3.5% down, meaning your loan is $289,403; Assuming at 3% rate, and PMI your monthly payment is ~ $1,400 x 12 = $16,800)

    NOI - Debt service = Cash flow

    $10,822 - $16,800 = - $5978

    If you have more details on zip code, I can provide more accurate tax and rent comps which may make this a better deal! Hope this helps

    - Bobby 



  • Member since 2021 · 9 posts · 2 votes
    4y

    Hey Bobby, thanks for that, makes sense. How are you figuring 7% vacancy rate? 

  • Investor · Tucson, AZ · Member since 2016 · 29 posts · 25 votes
    4y

    It’s just an estimate

    7% sounds like a lot, but in reality, 7% of 1 year is just over 3 weeks. So let’s say you acquire this property and it’s 100% occupied.

    When the first lease ends, you move in right away. Well during the course of that year, if you plan to raise rents to market rate, your two other units might sit vacant if/when the tenants move out. If each unit takes just a week and a half to get filled, that’s 3 weeks total, or just under 7% time where you don’t get rental income due to vacancy. You might not need to make any repairs, but during a turnover, tenants won’t be moving in and out of the unit on the same day. You’ll take a few days to clean the unit, change the locks, and do whatever is needed to make the unit ready for the next resident, and that could take a week.

    Going into year 2, you could probably get aggressive and reduce your vacancy to sub 5% since it might be more expensive for your tenants to move vs pay for the annual rental increase 

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