All Forum Posts by: Samuel Biondolillo

Seth, I sent you a PM with the location. My gf and I have chosen to pass on the property for now. With minimal experience in the area, both of us working full-time, and my gf still in graduate school, we are going to look for something in need of less work to start out. Thanks to everyone who chimed in, this was a good learning experience for us.

I went and viewed the property today with my girlfriend and our Realtor (a personal friend). It would definitely be a big project to take on for our first deal. Part of the roof would need to be replaced at a cost of $8-10k and the interior could use some serious rehab on flooring/wall coverings in addition to general updating. There is a water leaking issue on one exterior wall that would need to be investigated further to get an accurate picture of the necessary renovations. 

We will need to get in touch with a contractor we know to get some estimates on a realistic rehab cost, but our Realtor suggested we would need to get an FHA 203(k) loan for around $185k to pay for contracting everything out. The numbers still look pretty decent after making the necessary adjustments, and it appears we would be able to capture a good amount of equity if things work out smoothly (when does this happen?). We have reached out to a mortgage broker to see what kind of financing we can secure.

In the meantime, my girlfriend and I have a lot to think about. Doing a major rehab while moving our primary residence in conjunction with buying our first property and learning the ropes of property management is fairly intimidating; it is likely we will wait for a property in better condition which is more move-in ready. We haven't ruled the property out, but we are not exactly excited to take on these challenges during winter in New England.

 Showing is in about an hour. I'll post details this afternoon.

Not sure if this is relevant, but this home was de-listed over the summer and has only come back on to the market earlier this month. Relevant price history:

Listed 11/06/14 $249,900

Price Changed 03/23/15 $219,900

Price Changed 06/23/15 $199,900

De-Listed 06/23/15

Re-Listed 10/05/15 $160,000

$249k is comparable to properties in the neighborhood which are in good shape, so I have no idea what could be going on, but I will find out in about 9 hours :)

Percy, thank you for your input, I will be sure not to be a slave to this metric. My chief concern at this point is maximizing my time, along with the time of my team members. If I'm scanning the MLS for my area, I want to be able to identify properties which are worth more investigation (i.e. actual numbers, as you mentioned).

Do you think the quick-and-dirty, back-of-the-envelope calculations I am doing here look like they are correct? Am I missing something in my math for preliminary screening? Thanks again for your willingness to help a newbie like myself.

Kyle, I'll be sure to do that, thanks for the tip. Just wanted to run it by someone more knowledgeable than myself. To be clear, the property tax and insurance are considered part of the 50% Rule estimate? I would only be checking to see if the Mortgage P&I can be covered after deducting the estimate of fixed expenses, right? Thanks again!

I am just starting to look at my first properties with my girlfriend and we stumbled upon a listing down the street for a duplex being sold as an approved short sale. We are determined to buy a small multi-family property and house-hack to get into real estate as with many others on this site. Here's the deal:

Listing Price: $160,000

Estimated Rents: $2300/mo

50% Rule: $1150/mo

Mortgage P&I: $840/mo

Monthly Cashflow: $310/mo

Annual Cashflow: $3720/year

Down Payment: $5600 (3.5% FHA Owner-Occupied)

Annual ROI: 66.43%

Since this property has been on the MLS for a long time, I figure there must be something going on to keep it unsold for so long (350 days). I will be viewing the property tomorrow to confirm any needed repairs, but it seems like even with a few thousand dollars of needed updates, this should be an excellent deal for a house-hack because we would be able to move in and make repairs/updates on an ongoing basis as cash allows.

So, anything I'm missing here? Please feel free to brutally poke holes in the deal. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the invitation @Matt Lefebvre! I'll be sure to let you know when I'm in a position to start looking for properties in earnest. For now I am still working on saving up that down payment (40% savings rate) and getting my credit sorted out (~660 now). 

Have you found that Concord is a decent place to invest? The prices here are very high compared to what I was used to back in Dallas, TX and especially compared to the numbers in many blog posts on this site.

Hello everyone, my name is Sam Biondolillo and I am in the beginning/education phase of my real estate investing career. I am currently located in Concord, NH and will be looking to acquire my first property in the area within the next 12 months. My girlfriend of 5 years will be joining me on this journey, so I am trying to establish some solid contacts in the area and build a team to get us off on the right foot.

My main market will be Concord, NH and Southern NH generally extending down into Manchester, Nashua, and Salem for the right deals. The main strategy to be employed at the outset is House Hacking as an introduction to long-term buy-and-hold land-lording, focusing on 2-4 unit buildings.

I work full time, as does the girlfriend, so I am focusing on passive investment as much as possible like many others I have read about on here using the tried-and-true Earn->Save->Buy Assets formula for long-term financial freedom.

Thanks for reading!