Is this a good or bad deal? Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Vincent Filia]

Hi BP community!

I'm a new investor in Southwestern Pennsylvania, I'd really like it if anyone could share some insight on what they'd do in my situation... Here goes!

The house is in Charleroi PA, a small town in Washington county. Depending on the part of the town you could be dealing with a C or D rated area, this particular property I think is located in the C rated category. I've run the numbers on the property and it looks like it could be a home run, but just like any new investor I'm struggling with the 'rehab cost' analysis & I am approaching this as a BRRR deal for now.

Here are my numbers:

Rent : $500 per month at the least per unit ( if I decide to convert into 2 separate units, more on that later)

Taxes: $700 per year

Insurance: $700 per year

All utilities Paid by tenants

Avg yearly maint/repairs: I'm going with $1200 per year, but i'm not sure if that is a good number to start with

I'd also pay for a home warranty: $600 per year

Now for financing, I'm working with the seller on seller financing. He has a Home equity loan where he pays $190 per month and he lives downstairs in the finished basement which is a separate entry from the 2 or potentially 1 unit above him. The outstanding principal is ~$25k and he has about 20 years left to pay on it.

Now some info on the property, the top 2 or 1 unit is completely gutted down to the studs. He started the project himself but he admitted he just stopped caring. He is approaching 80 years old and he just wants to help out a young buck like me try to make some extra cash flow.  I'm in between 2 options: Make 2 separate entries and have 2 separate 1 bed/1 bath efficiencies or finish the whole thing (2 floors) and rent it out. I'm thinking it could fetch $600 - $650 per month. 

One last thing, I'm not sure how long the man has left and he acknowledges this. How would I set this up so that if Lord forbid, he passes away while I'm thousands in to this thing?

Any help would be much appreciated!!!

[Tim Herman]

@Vincent Filia It's nice that you want to improve someone else's property. You will end up with nothing out of this deal without a purchase contract. In your description it is a gut to the wall. You are only budgeting 25k for rehab on a 1300 sf home or less than $20 sf. $6 sf will be in flooring if they have rip out old. You better get some bids on cost to rehab.