To buy the duplex or to not??

[Colleen Berquist]

Help! My husband and I have an opportunity to buy a completely flipped duplex in a cute, popular suburban downtown area. Originally listed at $310,000 and now down to $295,000. Bottom unit is 2/1 and upper is 1/1. Bottom rents for $1400 a month including an attached garage space. Upper unit is empty but listed at $1100 a month. We currently own two other single family rentals and want to make our move over to the duplex world. Our only hesitation is that we’d be pretty cash poor after putting the 25% down required for investment properties. We did the math with very conservative numbers and came to a cash flow of about $250 a month with the thought that’d actually be quite a bit more than that. The money scares me. My husband is less apprehensive but still just can’t decide what to do. If we do this, that means we are stuck for a while and can’t add to our portfolio. If we don’t, then we portentously miss out on a good buy. What do we do?!