First rental property in NH

[James Lapierre]

Hi BP community! Brand new here, been searching for my first property. I’ve been looking at duplexes (or more) to owner occupy. I was pre-approved for 350k conventional or FHA. I’ve been trying to find deals that will benefit me 3-4 years down the road when I move out and rent both units, here’s my question: is there an equivalent to the 1% rule when owner occupying? I’m looking at this duplex with MLS list price 330k which I think is way too much, it was listed at 249k a couple years ago. 2BR 2B units, Rents about 1800. I’m stuck finding a simple equation for owner occupying, what did you do for your first duplex if you lived in one half first? How did you know it was a good deal? sorry for the newbie question!

[Axel Ragnarsson]

James, kudos to getting pre-approved and taking some concrete steps towards making your first deal. You mentioned you’re looking for a duplex that meets the 1% rule while you’re owner occupying - this is going to be pretty tough, there’s not too many deals out there that would hit this metric, as it would imply that the property nearly hits the 2% rule when you move out and rent your unit (which is hard to achieve in NH). The only way to really achieve this is to look for 3-4 unit buildings, in which case it’s possible. What areas of NH are you looking in? That greatly dictates the kind of deals you’re going to find... the numbers you find on NH/MA border properties are going to be significantly different than ones in say Nashua or Manchester