All Forum Posts by: Curtis Baker

My wife and I are in a bit of a predicament. She is 1/3 owner of a two family with her grandmother and father. Business with family is less than ideal but we decided to give it a shot. This past year there have been numerous disagreements, arguments, difference of thinking, etc which drove us to wanting out. The situation we are faced with now is whether or not we should take a chance and renovate one of the units bathroom and kitchen prior to selling in hopes of making a return on the money put in for the renovations. What projects should we do prior to selling? Is it worth diving into a full bathroom/kitchen gut (unpermitted/handyman not of my choice) possibly revealing more issues or just paint, new cabinet pulls, switches/outlets, lights, etc?

We are in the market for a two or three family property that we will owner occupy for at least a year or two until we are ready for another. Rent is higher the closer to Boston you go but also home prices are too. We will have approximately $50k cash available when we are planning on buying which, in an area like Boston wouldn’t allow for much. Even in an area like Lynn (North Shore) the margin between gross monthly income and all expenses based on an $800k property would net us approx $-2500/mo. Lawrence, Haverhill, Nashua, and Manchester markets are tempting because the property values are lower.The margins between estimated monthly expenses and gross monthly income from the property are much smaller and could cash flow after minor updates and repairs.  Is it worth waiting until we have more cash and purchase closer to Boston or do we move our endeavors north to get into real estate and scale up from there?