First rental: a triplex. Would you?

[Courtney Robinson]

So.... in my quest to move from flipping to buying rental properties, I found a property on the MLS that makes sense numbers wise, but I don't know if I like the current tenant situation. Here goes:

This is a three large 1 bedroom building. Two of the three units are remodeled, and the third could use about $3000 worth of updates. I’m fine with that.

Here’s what I don’t like: two of the three units have dogs. One is a pit bull puppy, the other is a large lab. also, one of the units clearly has 4 people living in a 1 bedroom! Walked into a huge cloud of weed smoke in that one too.

I have no experience landlording at all, but I know from reading Brandon Turners book that there are some not so great things at play here.

To you experienced landlords out there who actually like being a landlord: would you purchase this? I have the money to carry the mortgage for a long time if everyone moves out, and also have the money to evict if people aren’t paying. I’m in the process of finding out who is behind on rent, and what the length of the lease is for the tenants. I’m also interested to see if the unit with 4 people in it has that on their lease. I’m guessing I should prepare to evict some tenants. 

Also, do you like dealing with a one bedroom apartment tenant? I don’t think I’m going to be able to be as picky as Brandon Turner suggests with credit scores and smoking in his book with a one bedroom apartment in this area. This is a C area.