All Forum Posts by: Eric Greenberg

Thanks for the info Yuriy!

I would first spend some real time in the city and find out what areas you enjoy. Then look at what your budget is and see what areas you can actually buy in. Once you narrow that down start to look on facebook/zillow/ect what rooms/units are renting for depending if you are doing by the room or buying a multifamily and renting units.

Because you are living there id strongly reccomend you enjoy where you live over numbers in an excel sheet.

Hi,

A lot of the properties here are zoned RSA-5 even if they shouldnt have been. Go to Atlas, then scroll down and click Liscense & Inspections, then scroll down and look for Zoning Permit Documents (it will be right under where your use permit is). Under that there should be a clickable link to a pdf where you can view the variance that gives you the legal ability to use it as a triplex. In that it will state which units are residential and which as commercial. Do realize a lot of folks illegally rent spaces in Philadelphia.

Happy to discuss in more detail if you want to DM me. I have a mixed use small multifamily variance I could show you if youd like.

-Eric

Good luck! Hoping you'll still be able to keep this as a STR after the new laws just came out.

Ive used Bells Flooring in Northern Liberties before. They have a small sale section and ive had them match prices

I agree w Stephen. Step 1 would be find out where you would even want to live. A lot of the times the areas that make the most sense in the excel sheet may not be places you would like to live.

Step 2, in those areas look at what multis have sold for in the last X months. See if that is congruent with your budget. Once you understand the areas you are interested in start talking to other local investors and RE agents who deal with small multis.

Similar to Dans question, I would just make sure you know the neighborhood where the property is located. There are plenty of new builds going up 1/2mile away or less from some of our properties that I wouldnt touch. 

If its a house hack I would spend some quality time really getting to know the area(s) you are looking at before getting in too deep. There are plenty of areas in the city that look great on paper but you may not feel comfortable living there. 

 Agreed! Where you may want to invest purely number wise will most likely be different then where you may want to house hack in Philly. Im happy to discuss more if you want to DM me.

Hi Kathryn,

Do you rent in the city now? If so do you know what areas you would want to potentially house hack in? For your first which will be a house hack I wouldnt try to live by alot of the general rules you hear on the forums/podcasts. Theres a good chance you may not want to live in the areas where you could meet the 1-2% rule. 

Try to keep things simple and dont over think it. I wouldn't overspend on your first either and use it as a stepping stone. Theres a chance you may not enjoy house hacking /being a landlord. Happy to discuss in more detail if you want.