What steps do I take in learning about buying a duplex?

Question

I am considering about purchasing a duplex.  My daughter would live on one side and the other side would be rented out.

What books would you recommend that read?  How do I go about doing the research and analysis?

Jason Hartman · Answer

Thanks @Will Fraser  Yes, duplexes are fine, especially when trying to get more units within the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac 10 loan limit but I still like SFRs best of all.

Matt Ziegler · Answer

It has been our experience that duplexes tend to provide more cash flow and agh more appreciation, so it is nice to have a mix in your portfolio. But as Jason states above, and many others agree, sfh’s are more desirable.

Will Fraser · Answer

I didn't realize that were disadvantageous until Jason Hartman (podcaster and YouTuber) shared some about it and it illuminated what I was experiencing with my holdings.   He's got some blog articles about it, but some of his most recent 100 podcasts is probably where I heard it

Will Fraser · Answer

That's one of the best imaginable use-cases for a duplex, so that's good news!  Combining this with what Hartman said above, if you could use financing that is going to lock this interest rate in for 30-years at a dirt-cheap rate and she has a plan to optimize the performance, then you should have a nice investment assuming you buy it right.

Stanley Pearse · Answer

I have read the above comments...here is the rub....our daughter wants to live on one side and then use the other side for her "hustle".  She wants to have a hostess business and do short term vacation rental on the other.

Stanley Pearse · Answer

@Will Fraser, thank you for your timely response.  I will obtain the book you mentioned.  We sold a rental that we had (what was at one time our family home that we inherited in 2005) back in August.

Now we are in the process of deciding to reinvest the proceeds in back into real estate, or in the financial market.

Will the book go into more in depth reasons as to why duplexes are less desirable?

I am registered for today's webinar "How to buy small multi-family properties."

Thank you.

Stan Pearse

Will Fraser · Answer

HI @Stanley Pearse, welcome back to the BiggerPockets forums!

Depending on the bigger picture of this investment I'd recommend that one of you (perhaps actually both of you) read Brandon Turner's book about getting started in Real Estate investing:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Duplexes are basically single family houses, except less desirable when compared apples to apples, so all of the basic info about general real estate investing applies to duplexes, triplexes, and 4-plexes with that important provision.  Know that you'll need to account for shared utilities (if any) and a slightly higher insurance cost and the rest is pretty vanilla.

What steps do I take in learning about buying a duplex?

Most Popular Reply