Advice from more experienced members.

[James M Fario]

Hello everyone! Im going over a few deals this week. Still looking for that first purchase. I recently came across a property thats very interesting.

It is a duplex with 1 tenant, who has lived there for 15 years. And is paying approx $1600 a month in rent. And pay all of his own utilities. There is no HOA and its within an hour of a military base.

I will be using a VA loan with no money down. And the asking price is $240,000.

With what information i have gathered so far (waiting on agent to respond) and using the calculators here on BP. It would cash flow a negative amount of roughly $100 per month.

To me this seems like a no brainer. I buy and hold as intended. And after a year of owning it i qould be able to rent out the second unit. Therefore increasing the cash flow.

I know this is a rough estimate as more information is needed. But could i ask for advice, suggestions, questions i should ask or concerns i should have from all of the much more advanced members of the forum?

[Jody Sperling]

If you can get the duplex under contract, it's a great purchase. All you'd have to do to build a comfortable income is buy one duplex every year for five years that repeated the soundness of the one you're considering now and you'd have a monthly cash flow of $6,000 with a robust savings for repair and maintenance.

You'd also have somewhere in the neighborhood of a half-million-dollar net worth, and all this without considering other sources of income like a W-2 or working spouse. Best of luck!