First Time Home Buyer. What market with $40k?

Question

Hello,

I am looking at buying a single family household to rent in or around Columbus. I have been doing the 50% rule and 2% rule to find potential leads in my area. I have yet to find one and was wondering if anyone had any general tips on neighborhoods to look at or general tips for a first time buyer.

Remington Lyman · Answer

It is pretty tough to find 2% rules in Columbus

Patrick Drury · Answer

@Cole SteeleLook at doing a house hack. In Columbus OH it's extremely tough to find deals that meet the 2% rule.

Simon Ashbaugh · Answer

2% are very very difucult to find in Columbus. Most of what I'm seeing is .75% - 1% Is house hacking an option? If you house hacked a duplex in 43202 or somewhere comparable you'd be in a decent neighborhood and while you may not be cashflow positive, you'd hardly be paying anything for rent + you'd be building equity.

Nathan Cotton · Answer

Hey Cole - congrats on making an initial foray into the Columbus market. As others have said, 2% rule is pretty difficult here. However, the market is looking really promising in general in terms of appreciation across neighborhoods for the foreseeable future for a lot of reasons (neighborhood growth, steady population rise, pockets close to downtown that are still underdeveloped).

Even if you're around 1% with a rental in the meantime, depending on where in the city it can still make really good sense to hold for a few years and then level up from there. I'd look at places like Franklinton, Whitehall, Southern Orchards, Linden, etc.)

Kevin Stewart · Answer

I am also looking in the Columbus market, and have found deals (for duplexes) that meet the 1% rule, but not the 2% rule in mostly C neighborhoods where one unit has been rehabbed and one unit needs updating. Without seeing the units (we are out of state) I find it hard to estimate what rehab costs would be.

Isaac Lane · Answer

Hi @Cole Steele, with $40,000 on hand, I'd look into possibly doing a househack. You'll be able to put less money down into purchasing the property and you'll be able to get a higher class property in a higher class neighborhood.

Sam McCormack · Answer

@Cole Steele

It will be very hard to get that 2% like many people say. 1.2% is normally a decent starting point to make a deal out of

Mike Hasson · Answer

I'm up in Mansfield, about an hour North of Columbus, and there are deals here for around 40K, inlcuding duplexes. This is a good middle ground between Columbus and Cleveland in my opinion, and not as saturated with competing investors.

Cole Steele · Answer

Thank you so much. That is the problem I’m running into is I’m getting into some questionable neighborhoods. I think I might take some time and just save up more funds or look for a different strategy like house hacking.

First Time Home Buyer. What market with $40k?

First Time Home Buyer. What market with $40k?

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