All Forum Posts by: Tom Wagner

I monitor a few specific submarkets as well, and I think pricing is tapering off in some neighborhoods while continuing to rise or hold steady in others. For example, I was very surprised to see two separate two-families in Somerville and Medford close for $100k+ above asking last week!

I also find the month over month changes more interesting than the y/y changes, particularly regarding inventory. And finally, I thought this national-level graph tells a good story of what is currently going on in the market:

Thinking of doing this with my four-unit in Jersey City and here are some scattered thoughts I've been considering:

* Trying it with just one unit first before expanding to the whole building

* Posting it for lease as a LTR and a MTR simultaneously, then seeing where the interest falls and buying the furnishings for MTR once demand is proven

* Going to the local hospital to talk to employees there, and potentially put up flyers

Overall, I think it is a great way to boost revenue and I agree with your intuition that the added work of self-managing is worth the squeeze compared to offloading to a property manager.

Hi Jenna, Lots to chew on here! From a cost standpoint there are a ton of unknown variables:

* How many elevators will there be?

* How efficient is your floor plate? 85% efficiency will result in about 53,000 sqft vs 90% efficiency would be ~49,000 sqft

* How many parking spaces will there be?

* How extensive is the sitework required?

* Will the building need to be sprinklered? (seems like yes)

* What level finishes are you planning to use?

* How many sqft of amenities and what will the amenity package look like?

Overall it is impossible to generate an accurate estimate without more info, and I would recommend taking this questions to GCs once you have rough drawings.

Additionally, stepping back there may be a few other things to consider:

* Are 1,400sqft 2bd's what your submarket needs?

* Are you building for roommates, young professionals or families? This will affect how you design your floor plans.

* Why not add some variety to the unit mix?

Happy to chat via DM or in person if you are interested!

Congrats Melissa -- awesome property! You were able to remodel the kitchen + every room for $59,000? Really impressive work.

Hey Jacob, welcome to the community! I think you'll find everyone here is pretty welcoming, both in the forums and when interacting 1:1. Regarding your search you are in a position many envy: you have a huge search radius!

If you dig through the forums you'll see some good discussion on the regional rail extensions to New Bedford and Fall River, which could be good options. You also could look at Providence, where an opportunity for cash flow still exists even as rates rise. There also is still some opportunity in Greater Boston, though it is definitely tougher now than it was a year ago.

That said, it is really important to have deep, boots-on-the-ground knowledge, so if you are going to invest in a community which you aren't familiar I would make sure to spend a lot of time in that area.

My partner bought a triplex in Denver that had leases for 6+ months post closing, but she needed to owner occupy for mortgage purposes. In the end she ended up paying $5,000 extra to have one unit delivered vacant, which the owner then paid directly to the tenant.

The mileage from this strategy may vary by location and I personally am not a huge fan of dislocating tenants, but it could be an option.

Feel free to PM me as well, I have a few contacts I would highly recommend. Good luck with your search!

Agree with Lien on the Hudson Valley, but proceed very cautiously as towns are constantly changing their Airbnb laws (especially as prices continue to rise). You also could consider a property in Jersey City, but their Airbnb law changed recently so you would need to buy a 2-unit property and rent the other unit to a long-term tenant who would be willing to serve as your "on-site property manager.

At this meetup we will cover the basics of buy-and-hold real estate investing:
* Identifying properties
* Analyzing cash flow
* Estimating repair costs

The format will be a 20-30 minute structured presentation, followed by 20-30 minutes of open discussion -- bring your questions!

Monthly meetup to discuss real estate investing and house hacking in the Greater Boston metro area!

All topics welcome for open discussion -- bring your questions / ideas / strategies!