First Investment Property (not sure if its a good deal)

[Lesster Maspoch]

Hello,

We have a deal that we're analyzing, since we are new to investing in real estate I was hoping that we can get some input from more seasoned investors as to whether this investment is a good deal or not.

Property Type: SFR

Location: Spartanburg, SC

Profile: 2Br/1Bath 864 sq ft

Built: 1960

Price: $53,000

Closing Costs: $3,530 (we are paying the cc)

TOTAL: $56,530

Taxes : $1,400 approx

Insurance: $730

We are buying this from an investor and there's a tenant already in place which they are staying, this is a cash deal.  We are doing our inspection and that would tell us of any major issues but from driving by it looks like the property definitely needs some TLC if the tenant leaves in order to get it to rent ready again.  

The current rent is $595, a house of similar profile about two blocks away is renting for $750 so I believe the rent is low currently on the property we are looking at. The property is located a block away from a very nice apartment complex with retail shops and those apartments are renting in upwards of $1,000.  There's a community being built about four blocks away where the homes are starting in the $140k range.

I ran the numbers, as best as I could given that I don't know much, and the numbers are not what I believe to be great. What is keeping us interested is that the neighborhood is getting an influx of big investments from big firms which they have a lot more data than we have so if they are putting their big budgets into that neighborhood is because they are seeing positive growth.  This is one of those deals that the numbers might not be great but the potential seems to be there....one of those that maybe 5 years from now you look back and say "we should have bought that".  Again this is our first one so I don't want to fall into the mistake of convincing myself that is a good deal just because we want to invest.

Thank you in advance and sorry for the long post :)

[Nick Robinson]

@Lesster Maspoch

Lesster,

So you are this buying this deal all cash? If you break down the numbers:

$7,140 GSI (Gross Scheduled Income)

-$1,400 Taxes

-$730 Insurance

-$571.20 Management Fee @8% (Assuming you have PM since your in FL and prop is in SC)

$4,438.80/yr (still nothing for CapEx or expenses, which you will have)

Or look at 50% rule

$7,140 GSI

-$3,570 (50% for expenses ) 

-$571.20 Management Fee @8% (Assuming you have PM since your in FL and prop is in SC)

$2,998.80/yr 

Thats a 5.3% CoCr.  If I did this deal I would probably leave this in a maintenance fund till it hit about $5,000.  Obviously not knowing this market and taking your further analysis of the area thinking your going to be getting a lot of appreciation(I usually write it down but doesn't factor into my numbers because it is speculation) and that you believe rents should be $750/mo that looks like this

$9,000 GSI

-$4,500 50% expenses 

-$720 PM@8%

$3,780/yr

Thats 6.69% CoCr.  So takes about 15yrs to make your money back based on CF.  I know some people include PM as part of the 50% so that improves you to 7.96%CoCr which would take you about 12.5yrs to make your money back.

All depends on you look at it and how you do your numbers.  I usually write things more conservative because I don't want to do any pocket shots.  Regardless of anything I do believe you should leave about $5,000 in a fund to handle any unforeseen maintenance or any issues that arise. 

Hope this helps.