Ready to buy my first home in Massachusetts! Need guidance please.

[Aaron Landau]

Hello all,

I am located in Massachusetts and am looking to purchase my first home. I want an investment property as my first home where I live in one unit and rent the other units out. Unfortunately, there are not many multi-family homes in the area my girlfriend and I want to live in. Almost every residential area is zoned for multi-family (I have already checked and verified this) it just so happens that most of the homes on the market are SFH. I want to buy a SFH and convert it to a duplex.

Does anyone have experience with this and how can I go about finding a realtor that specialized in these conversions? 

For those who have done a conversion of SFH into duplex how much would you estimate this costs?

[Farley Youman]

I am checking to see if you have considered a SFH with a finished basement? One strategy is for you to live in the basement, and rent out the main part of the house to basically pay for your mortgage.  As you become richer (or even now), you could do this in reverse- you live in the main part and rent out the basement. You ask a good question about the cost of converting a SFH to a duplex. The time and money should definitely be considered, and also the city regulations.  Good luck Aaron.