All Forum Posts by: Kristopher K.

Welcome to BP Jessica LeClair. I also do the Boston commute, same goal as far as leaving the "9-5". What areas are you looking in?

Ryan Richard and John H., I'm going through this now in MA. I've have about 1300 total in parts and labor. Local utility will connect from pole after inspections. I will be paying extra because I'm actually changing the pole the service is being fed from (need to actually confirm this). The cost included from new weather head to new 100 amp, socket, panel, breakers and also included running some new lines inside. Last one I had done was in the same ballpark, also with additional lines for baseboard heat. I think in both cases the additional lines only added about 200 max.

Justin C., just a little more to think about: systems? The building is 100 yrs old, what condition is the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, roof. The 3k for repair could go real fast if you need new service panels etc. Don't forget lead paint certificates, smokes, and CO's if needed.

Not sure on % down, is this owner occupied? Can you go 20% since it's a two family?

Would I buy it? I'm guessing from the rents you are seeing it's Boston area, not Worcester. Something between the purchase price, rents, and taxes is not adding up to me - rents look Boston, taxes and purchase price look Worcester or could be somewhere between. Very much depends on the area and your goals in any case.

Chris O'brien, I think there's a lot of very good advice given here. You need to think about acquisition, permitting, planning, construction, and hidden costs. An 8-12 unit building in my opinion is pretty big for a first one, simple design or not. I'm not trying to discourage you, if you have related experience you might be ok.
As Joel Owens mentioned, you will need to find out what the town will let you do - zoning bylaws will vary. Looks like Adams has their's online- I'll try to drop the link here (http://ecode360.com/AD2021?needHash=true).Take a look at the infrastructure and see what's there - what do they require as far as amount of land versus number of occupants and open space rules.
Sometimes you can get a quick guess of costs based of square footages depending on level of finish *for example only - I don't know the numbers for out there*: if it were $200/sf, 800sf/unit, 8 units- that's construction costs for the building, then there's site, landscape, etc.

I would probably lean towards taking on a reno as Ann Bellamy mentioned, or team up as Karen Margrave suggests.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Joshua Dorkin , we have a link to the BP blogs, how about one to BP home or is that redundant? Also, I can't see a way to monitor a topic or pop a thread out to a web page to access other features like monitor.

Sweet! Running it on my iPad. Thanks Joshua Dorkin and Edd. No problems yet.

David Ray Moreno, I was interested reading this. I'm trained as an architect as well, doing the architect hours which are not 9-5 by any stretch, and no where near what the shows or movies or ads portray. I'm also sick of it and have been for a while. The good news for you is your age is the inverse of mine.
So, my wife and I picked up a multi in our late 20's, it's been good. We lived there for a while and still have it.
Quite a few years back I decided to take some time and learn more about REI. I worked out a business plan, did some market research, looked at properties. I have added one to my portfolio, it's a great mongrel property - two units, one year round, one seasonal, seller financing. Both units are also rehabs.
I've done it nights an weekends with two young kids and the full time archi-job. I can't get out to all the things I want to like their games and REI events like the Black Diamond nights out here in MA. But it's fun, and I'll get there.
You've gotten some key advice here already so I'm just offering my 'starting' story as a little encouragement that you can do it. You might have to keep that w2 job for a bit, but learn from it.
George Paiva, Ryan Pyle, and Kyle B. are all right. You'll have to put in the extra but on the good side, you are 24, work 9-5ish, and went through architectural school - you can do this.
Adam K also has some great advice - that is similar to how we got our first. It was full and as we had tenant turn over we would run through and rehab the unit ourselves. The major work was done as far as plumbing and electric but we still learned a lot.
I'm far from full time REI, I'll get there, it will be great!
Enjoy it!

@J Johnson, (sorry, the mention @ trick doesn't always work on my iPad),anyway look up a gentleman named Matt Landau. He's done a few blog posts on BP pertaining to vacation rentals and he has a site, I've not checked it out yet.

Hi J Johnson,
I'm just getting my first vacation unit ready for the first season it has seen in about 6 years (from what I've been told). To add to your list I'd say at the least an accountant. I don't know where you are looking or what other markets are like, but in my area a good RE agent that does rentals, few of them do in my area. As far as planning, don't forget things like furnishings, maintenance, permits, and whatever else you would see in your market.
Good luck!

Welcome to BP Christopher. As you have already found there is a ton of info here, and you'll see a lot of local people on here as well. My advice would be to start reading, develop a plan, and connect with others.