All Forum Posts by: Zachery T Moore

@Zachery T Moore - I would recommend partnering with a realtor who is familiar with the area for your first home purchase. They can help you get in the ballpark of the market value, (though this sounds like a pretty unique property), as well as the rental value, and they can also help with putting together a competitive offer on the home and ensuring you CYA. 

What you are willing to offer should also probably be dictated by your plan for the home - if you are planning to put a mortgage on the home and hold it long-term, then will your rental income cover your debt to an extent that is satisfactory to you? A realtor should be able to help you pin down rental comps as well. 

you could, but i suspect you wouldn't get accurate data that way. is the house legally permitted now as a duplex? if-so, you should be looking at duplexes as comps. 

you can always hire an independent appraiser. its cheaper if you go direct through an appraiser (check yelp) as opposed to an AMC which lenders will require. its not a bad idea to spend a few hundred bucks to get some un-bias opinions while you do your due-diligence, just know that if you go with traditional financing to any degree, the lender will not use your appraiser for their purposes and require you to get another one through their AMC's.

Another avenue - realtors/ real estate salespeople should be able to get you good comps, but they will want to represent you on the purchase since that's how they get paid. i say this since you mentioned your potential deal is off-market, that leads me to believe you probably don't intend to work with an agent. 

Hope this was helpful to some degree!