House Hacking near Doylestown, PA (Bucks County)

[Nicholas Menezes]

Hello Everyone, 

I am looking for help purchasing my first property. My wife works in Doylestown, PA and we are looking to purchase near there to minimize her commute. We have a good chunk of cash to go toward a down payment and have gone to see a couple of places with our realtor. 

We have been trying to find a property ideal for house hacking, like a multi-family property, but there is not anything on the market. There are not many multi-family properties in this area so we are also considering other strategies like the live-in-flip or building auxiliary dwelling units but both those options are a little bit more intimidating since we do not have any experience doing renovations. 

Has anyone had any lucky house hacking in the Doylestown or other parts of Bucks County? Is there a strategy that works well here? 

Our goal with house hacking is to try to lower or eliminate our housing payment. I also want to use real estate as a means to grow wealth so this would hopefully be the first of many properties I purchase. I'm just looking for some help getting started. 

Thanks! Any advice is welcomed.

[Rob Lawrence]

Hey, you are correct that Multifamily does not exist everywhere in the Philly suburbs.  There are a few different hotspots that have them.  Building auxiliary is going to be zoning dependent.  Many multifamily properties require a lot of renovations, since they tend to be beat up by tenants.  

Financing on a Multifamily is also different, and you are going to need a lot more down.

You may look at doing a live-in flip, or just buying a place with multiple bedrooms and getting roommates.  Thats really the simplest thing.

Not sure if you are fully committed to your current realtor, but I am a Realtor that invests myself, and I help a lot of people get started.