Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2016 · 602 posts · 250 votes
Hi BP!
My company has recently required me to move to the Boston area but I wanted to make the most of this opportunity by investing into an upper fixer multifamily home. I however, do not have any experience at all with the area and was curious if anyone could suggest surrounding 10 mile radius cities to Cambridge (this is where my office is). I am planning to do an FHA Loan on this property (3.5% down) my budget would be between 300-600K. I am also curious how I would potentially reach out to general contractors in the area to help me fix up the properties? One of the suggestions I was reading on the BP forums was to call up Property Management companies and ask them for their recommendations. If anyone has any experience, tips, pointers and suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!
What area of Cambridge is your office in? Kendall Square, Central Square, etc...? Also how do you plan on getting to work? Car or public transportation? These are very important questions for determining where to invest. Even a 5 mile radius from the city can mean a 20 minute or more addition to your commute if you're using public transit and 40 minutes or more by car. I speak from experience. We owned a condo in Cambridge and sold it a couple of years ago to buy a multi-family. At the time we were priced out of a lot of areas around Cambridge so we purchased a place in Chelsea which only takes 15 min to get to work in Cambridge if you're driving at 11am and 8pm. (not the ideal times for most working people). During actual normal business hours it was 45 min commute one way. The ridiculous commute got to us and we just recently moved back to Cambridge with a plan to sell our Chelsea place. You want to be careful if your time is important to you and make sure you talk to people to understand the commute from where you're buying to where you work. A 5 minute commute here can turn into a 25 min commute during rush hour pretty easily. Happy to talk with you further and offer any assistance I can. As well as a fellow investor, I'm also a licensed real estate agent and a registered architect. Hope this helpful.
My company has recently required me to move to the Boston area but I wanted to make the most of this opportunity by investing into an upper fixer multifamily home. I however, do not have any experience at all with the area and was curious if anyone could suggest surrounding 10 mile radius cities to Cambridge (this is where my office is). I am planning to do an FHA Loan on this property (3.5% down) my budget would be between 300-600K. I am also curious how I would potentially reach out to general contractors in the area to help me fix up the properties? One of the suggestions I was reading on the BP forums was to call up Property Management companies and ask them for their recommendations. If anyone has any experience, tips, pointers and suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!
What area of Cambridge is your office in? Kendall Square, Central Square, etc...? Also how do you plan on getting to work? Car or public transportation? These are very important questions for determining where to invest. Even a 5 mile radius from the city can mean a 20 minute or more addition to your commute if you're using public transit and 40 minutes or more by car. I speak from experience. We owned a condo in Cambridge and sold it a couple of years ago to buy a multi-family. At the time we were priced out of a lot of areas around Cambridge so we purchased a place in Chelsea which only takes 15 min to get to work in Cambridge if you're driving at 11am and 8pm. (not the ideal times for most working people). During actual normal business hours it was 45 min commute one way. The ridiculous commute got to us and we just recently moved back to Cambridge with a plan to sell our Chelsea place. You want to be careful if your time is important to you and make sure you talk to people to understand the commute from where you're buying to where you work. A 5 minute commute here can turn into a 25 min commute during rush hour pretty easily. Happy to talk with you further and offer any assistance I can. As well as a fellow investor, I'm also a licensed real estate agent and a registered architect. Hope this helpful.
hat area of Cambridge is your office in? Kendall Square, Central Square, etc...?
My office is on Binney, I believe but I am not sure is in Kendall Square?
Also how do you plan on getting to work? Car or public transportation?
As of now, I planned on taking the T since my coworkers in Cambridge told me that our office building does not have a parking structure.
Wow! Thank you for your insight information, I am curious about investing into a Multifamily in Allston, Dorchester since these area seem most affordable on what I could see on Refin/Zillow/etc. Maybe perhaps we can get in touch? I definitely need a bunch of help.
Real Estate Agent · Boston, MA · Member since 2016 · 65 posts · 32 votes
9y
Bryan,
Welcome! I would be happy to talk to you about multi-family investing in the Boston area. My office is in Dorchester and I specialize in three-units homes. There are a ton of them here and they seem to offer the best return on investment out there. Let me know if you want to connect.