Hard to find Multis in a decent/safe area

[Brian Cheng]

I am trying to buy my first multi so i can house hack but with the current market i am not seeing any multis on listing that appear to be in an area that i'd feel safe walking around at night. are multis by default a lowering income associating properties in general and thus i should lower my expectations? or Start out with a SFH to learn the ropes with? I'd love to get a multi so i can hack it and learn how to be a landlord at the same time, but I am hesitant on living in areas that seem sketchy just to get a cheap deal. (Location: Houston,TX)

[Jim K.]

@Brian Cheng

I don't know the Houston market but that sounds par for the course in my area (Pgh, PA): almost anyone looking at getting into this can buy a 2-4 small multi with the right loan today, and the small multis in good shape in decent neighborhoods are prime targets. As a beginner looking for a primary residence as well as a househacking opportunity, I would not change my goals. I would instead buy a 4-5 bedroom urban SFH in good shape which I could convert into a rooming house: I would find a way to close off the downstairs living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom to turn them into my apartment and rent out each of the upstairs bedrooms to a different occupant. An underappreciated component of this scheme is to put in a large wired camera system. Each of the rooms gets a small fridge outside the room with a camera on it (that way you avoid food spoilage inside the rooms and food theft). The kitchen gets its own set of cameras. The bathroom door(s) gets one, too. The very best places for this have finished attics that you can build small bathrooms with standup showers in to create yet another rentable room.

If you have a place like this in a quality urban area, especially one next to a good-sized university with a sizable grad students, and you learn how to run it like clockwork, there's just crazy money to be made out of your primary residence.