Selling first investment home-next move?

[Erin Pierce]

Hi everyone! A little back story, I am in the process of selling my first house which was a fixer upper. My house was purchased in 2019 from a family acquaintance with an FHA loan. Before I could get my loan my dad and I with the help of friends/family put in many hours to fix the house in order to get approved for the FHA loan. The previous owner was also a hoarder so needless to say I had already invested a lot into the home before I even owned it. (But I got the house!) Six months later I closed.

  Fast forward two years later as we were waiting for the capital gains tax to be waived, we are ready to sell. We have comfortably about 80k in equity from the original price of my loan. I am spending around 17k of that to clear my own personal debt along with my husbands. Here is where I need advice. This is something I worked so hard for and I want to make sure I do the right thing to get the most out of this situation. We are moving into my parents basement during this transition so we don't need to use that money on another living area. We want to purchase a rental property and are thinking, duplex? Is this advisable? Or is there somewhere else I should be starting? I live in western mass. I am thinking another state for the rental property but would like others opinions! Thank you in advance to anyone who took the time to read this and respond!

Erin

[Kristin Halls]

Hi Erin! This is almost the exact same story as mine! Bought a house off an old guy we knew as-is, put in work to get it to qualify for FHA, Live-in-flip in western Mass, avoided capital gains by staying exactly 2 years, made about 75k, paid off some debt now just living with family and sitting on about 30k in cash waiting for the right opportunity! I've been watching the western mass market and there are hardly any good multifamily properties popping up on the MLS.. and if they do they are wickedly over priced. But I do think that investing in a multifamily or something even with a finished basement to rent or an in-law apartment is the way to go. I've been starting to research finding off-market deals and things like driving for dollars or mail campaigns. I think its going to be the only way to go to get anything these days! We don't stand a chance against the established investors for MLS properties hahah they get scooped up so quick! I'd love to connect and chat further about goals and what not! Feel free to shoot me a message :) - Kristin