Looking for a second opinion on my first deal

[Will Golay]

Hey everyone! I just found BiggerPockets recently despite being interested in real estate for a while, and I've come across a listing that I think is a great opportunity, but I'd like to hear from some more experienced investors before I pull the trigger. Just as some background: I'm a 20 year old college student, I was lucky enough to get lots of scholarships (so I'm actually paid to go here), and I also have some part time jobs that have allowed me to save up some money that I'd like to invest into real estate.

Because I'm in a condensed college town, most of the real estate investing around here is actually very profitable since a majority of students live off-campus, and even the most expensive of rents are cheaper than dorm living. Anyway, I've come across a property that is a 7 bed, 4 bath home built in 1850, listed for $324k and currently rented for ~$2800/month through the end of July '21. Here's the interesting part: this property is appraised for tax purposes at roughly $400k last year. Every other property on the market in my area currently is listed well above it's tax-appraised value, anywhere from $50k-$100k above. The other interesting bit is that it's $96/sqft currently, where other, similar rental/investment properties in my area typically have a $/sqft around $160-$180.

Now, originally I was planning on using the money I'd saved up for my first property to get a duplex/triplex with an FHA loan. However, for this property I was thinking I'd look for a lender who lends based on appraised value, then I could get a loan for 80% of $400k, which is $320k, almost the asking price of the home, and then offer around $270k-$290k (forgot to mention this property has been on the market for almost a year now, and I suspect the seller is an out-of-state investor looking to let go of a majority of their portfolio based on some digging I did), and use the difference to pay for renovations. This isn't all the details, and I haven't run all the numbers yet, but I wanted to get a few second opinions on the overall jist of my plan and make sure I wasn't wasting my time before I actually started the process of trying to get into it. This is somewhat complicated for a first deal/entry into real estate investing, so I'm also somewhat spooked by that as well, so any advice anyone can share would be appreciated. Looking forward to becoming part of this great community!