All Forum Posts by: Matt Vezina

The three unit I currently live in had been on the market for over a year. The back apartment I occupy was a complete filthy cigarette reeking gut job.  The house was jointly owned by three siblings, one of which lives in the next door apartment and wanted to stay put as a tenant, so the sellers were not entertaining offers that would have her vacate the unit.  It is in flood zone AE.   There were many factors at play that could have deterred other buyers but I was able to work with the situation and we closed at 75% of asking.  What concerns me more than long time on market is watching something bounce on and off of sale pending multiple times.  

Youtube comments are pretty much scraping the bottom of the garbage can as far as internet communication goes.  Coupling that with an account named "The Opinionist" I think there's an excellent chance you've been trolled. 

Are you purchasing this as an investment property or owner occupied?  There are low down payment options for owner occupied but no conventional product exists that will allow you to put down about 10% on an investment 4 plex

If I were in this situation I would want to continue charging full rent and pay the tenant for needed work independently of our rental agreement, then it's up to them what the money goes towards.  I wouldn't want to invite a situation where the tenant thinks "it's OK if I'm short on the rent this month because I can just do some work to make up for it."  I would share your concerns about monitoring quality of work and certainly do a small project first to see how they work.  Ultimately I would rather hire independent contractors to keep the relationship straightforward but as you say, he could be good.  

Yep, I house hack a three unit with two section 8 tenants.  Same process as if I wasn't living there.  

@Ella Fleur if you finance those future properties there will be hard inquiries every time you buy whether or not you were pre-approved.  Hard inquiries really aren't a big deal if your credit is in good shape otherwise, they barely affect the score and fall off in a few years.   

In addition to making agents more confident that you are worth their time, pre approval will allow you to move much faster when you are ready to make a deal since the lender already has all your information on file.  There's really no downside.  

I went straight to the listing agent for my first deal more out of necessity than an "I don't need no stinkin' agent" attitude or thinking I was gonna get a great deal by letting them double end it. I live in a slow market and like many others starting out I was just having difficulty even getting a buyer's agent to return my calls as soon as I say "multi family" or "investor." So I said heck with it I'm looking at the listing agent's contact right here on the MLS, might as well stop chasing after buyer's agents with my business.

In my case it worked out fine only because of all the education I've gotten from this site, I was confident running numbers on my own.   I understood exactly who the agent works for and that I was only using them as the channel for communicating my offer to the sellers.  Not surprisingly I had to press them for some of the less favorable information, such as oil bill records on a house that was poorly insulated with an antiquated boiler.  In the end my opening offer was 65% of asking and we closed at 75% so I was happy with the outcome.  From working with the listing agent I also got some information about the sellers that helped me put together an offer tailored to their needs.  I've heard that said before, find out what is important to the seller besides money, and it definitely worked for me.   

Well that got pretty long but the punchline is that I would definitely not recommend going unrepresented on the first deal IF you have good buyers agents in your area, but it can work out if you're having trouble connecting with anyone.  In general I agree with the "if you have to ask, you should probably have an agent" sentiment. 

I have a three unit in a flood zone.  The lender only needed proof of insurance to close, in my case they allowed a $10,000 deductible on the flood policy which helps keep the premiums down.  No additional loan fees/interest due to the flood zone.  May be a little different on the property you're looking at being of commercial size.  

I went the owner occupied multi family aka house hack route, and funded my first deal with a Freddie Mac Home Possible mortgage on a three unit. Putting 5% down I was out of pocket for about $10k total at closing so I strongly agree with the sentiment that you don't need a huge pile of cash to make things happen. My area tends to run a decent inventory of multi family so I opted for the better terms of owner occupied financing vs. going after LLC, hard money etc.

Struggles I had when first starting?  Well there is definitely anxiety when real estate investing makes the transition from being something you read about on Biggerpockets to something that is really happening, but then that's true of just about every transition in life.  The renovation learning curve has been a challenge and figuring out what I should take on myself vs.  what will take me four times as long and still not look as good as if I had just brought in a contractor from the get go.  

Buying a multi unit as an owner occupant will require much less money down and have a lower interest rate than staying in your apartment and buying an investment property. Check out the Freddie Mac Home Possible loan for the multi unit if your credit is at least 700 and you're not over the maximum income limits. You can put down as low as 5% with that and it has many benefits vs. the FHA. Lower insurance premiums and it's a conventional loan so stronger offer and less red tape involved. House hacking is an awesome start! I live in a three unit and the two tenants cover my mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, and a little bit of maintenance/capex.