How do you buy? Numbers don't work out.

[Assaf Kehati]

I'm thinking to buy an apartment instead of renting one in Brooklyn. One direction was to hack housing, which is to buy a 2 family house and live in one of the units and rent the other unit. But, it's really hard for me to see how the numbers work out. 

Let's say for a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn you pay around $1200-$1500 (around Prospect Park area). Then, if you buy an apartment (not even talking about the 2 family house) it will cost you $250-$300K. Only for mortgage you will pay around $1000 a month, on top of that you will pay insurance, taxes, repairs, utilities, and attorney fees, etc. Maybe I don't see how the numbers work, but something doesn't make sense. 

I'm trying to look for an option with positive cash flow but it looks like it's better to rent then do buy. Still, I do want to get into the market of buying a property, and buy one every year, but it looks not possible numbers wise. 

Anything I am missing in my calculations? Would love to hear your thoughts! 

Thank you!

[Adam K.]

@Assaf Kehati

Do more research. There are dozens of threads in these forums about Brooklyn and NYC and they'll give you plenty of information.

When @Joe Villeneuve is saying use actual numbers, then he means use actual numbers, not a 2 minute analysis based on conjecture. He means look at an actual building and run the actual numbers with actual rents and actual expenses (learn how much utilities cost. learn how much insurance costs. etc.) --- not some vague, a 1 bedroom apt costs $250-300K, rent is $1250-1500 "analysis". Besides, those numbers are not particularly accurate for most neighborhoods "around Prospect Park", which by the way, encompasses a lot of different neighborhoods, ranging from Park Slope to Flatbush, which are going to be VERY different in price point. And here's a suggestion - you can't house hack a 1 bedroom apartment, and you're not going to cash flow on a 1 bedroom apartment.

If you want to be a real estate investor, do the work. Put in the time to research the market. Go to open houses. Figure out what your goals are. You've already done more than most by even being on here and thinking about investing, but you need to do a lot more. Good luck.