All Forum Posts by: Andrew Ramos

I'm kind of glad this thread was revived.  I am in a similar situation but with a more rural duplex in Michigan.  Gravel driveway on slight grade (2-3% grade or so)  We don't have a lot of people walking by and there is no sidewalk.  I know from living there that the driveway will get icy.  I found it difficult to keep my footing on the walkways in the winter even having shoveled it myself after every snowfall.  You can just never get a gravel driveway clean, clean.  For myself, I think I'll keep the tenants responsible per the lease and not pay for snow removal.  I worry about the liability, but I don't feel that hiring out the snow removal makes things foolproof enough.  Unless I had a nice level concrete pad poured for the top of the driveway...  just to demonstrate the level of scope creep that can come from this line of thinking xD

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $157,500
Cash invested: $6,000

My cash invested is just what I put down to close the deal initially. I bought this duplex to house hack to free up cash for my racing hobby.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I was interested in the long term rental play with this duplex in addition to house hacking to improve my balance sheet now.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I found this deal on the MLS. The market was much nicer to buyers in 2015, so I offered 20% below their asking price. The seller countered at $162,500. I accepted their counter offer with the condition that they bring $5,000 to closing. When they agreed to that, in addition to my 3.5% down FHA loan, I ended up needing to bring very little cash to close the deal!

How did you finance this deal?

FHA, 30 year, 3.5% down

How did you add value to the deal?

My duplex unit was in rough shape when I first got it. The previous tenant was a smoker. I added value with just paint and carpet at first. Later, I redid the driveway and landscaping myself. I also redid the bathroom with help from a contractor on some items plus I had the kitchen redone in a high value way. New laminate flooring, painted cabinets with stainless pulls, tile backsplash, and quartz countertop from a local stone company with a remnant for a good price.

What was the outcome?

Now I house hack with the rental income exceeding the monthly mortgage+escrow payment.- The rent has increased significantly since then. Once I buy another duplex to rent and a single family to move into, I intend to fully rent this duplex at ~$1,000/month cash flow.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

It's not as hard and scary as it sounds to vet a new tenant. Most landlords charge below market rent. I don't like doing tile work and I am bad at it. Overall, this is the best financial move I've ever made.

 Thanks, Canesha!  I love the idea of checking Zillow for rentals and finding the owner and proposing a sale.  Regarding county records on property, I have checked them in the past but only when I already know of a small multi that exists.  Like the duplex on my street.  I'm mainly looking to discover small multis that exist that are off-market.  Have you found a way to search this through county records in your market?

Thanks, Wesley!  I will check out that book!  In terms of your 3 paid services listed, I've heard of reonomy.  I thought that one was specifically geared toward commercial properties.  But, a quick look-up shows prop stream does deal with residential multi.  Is this along the same lines as your understanding?

I, like many buyers in this market, am having a hard time securing a deal that cash flows through the MLS. So, I'm looking for ideas on simply how to find small multi-family properties that exist in a given area. Part of the reason I bring this topic to you is frustration of missing this property that sold about a month ago. https://www.redfin.com/MI/Whit...  I would happily pay above its sold price tomorrow, given some assumptions.  It was listed incorrectly as a single family home which didn't help my case.  

My question is this: If this property wasn't listed, how could I ever find that it exists? It's a duplex just 5 miles from where I live, that is nestled behind some trees in a rural area.  Is there any way to discover multi-family properties that exist outside of for sale or for rent listings and happening upon one and seeing 2 doors and 2 addresses or apartment numbers? I'd be happy to dig through documents or do some other kind of leg work. I just don't know of anything that indicates more than one unit in a residential building.  If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears!

Go team.