Looking for First House Hack.. HELP!

[Account Closed]

Hi guys, I am finally ready to buy my very first house and I am aiming for a multi-family / house hack. However it appears that in my area especially, the majority of homes are being sold to all cash buyers who are bidding above asking price for SFR let alone MFR. How am I supposed to compete with this?

It appears this is terrible market timing. House prices approaching 2006 levels, stock market unstable, battling against all cash buyers bidding over asking price... I live far from my new job and want to live closer, but given the factors, should I just rent a place closer while keep looking and hope to get lucky? I am in the Tampa / St. Pete area and MFR are not to common as it is. Also, I have a realtor searching the MLS for me, and I am searching the online free sites like loopnet and realtor.com, but how else can I search effectively? After searching I can say this is not looking to bright right now. Only thing I haven't done yet is to ask wholesales if they have MFRs.

Lastly, if I was to find a place, what is the best way to put together my team to ensure I am not buying something that will fall apart? Should I just ask around here on BP or at investor meetings (I plan to attend my first one soon) about quality contractors for repairs and advice on foundation. I assume this works mostly on referrals for appraisers, accountants, lawyers etc. as well?

Any general advice is more than welcome. I hate driving 2+ hours a day for work and want to get closer ASAP.

[Chris Mason]

The last three deals that crossed my desk that caught my attention.

• Short sale with the LOWEST offer being the accepted offer. Buyer's side of transaction called the listing agent and just asked "what do you want?" and listing agent gave the exact figure that she had just gotten done convincing the bank was it's maximum value. I know for a fact that another offer was higher ($50k higher!), but the listing agent broke the law and threw that offer out in favor of the offer that supported what she'd just finished convincing the bank was the maximum value. Problem is, the $50k higher offer pushed it out of short sale territory, and if the bank knew about it then they'd revoke the tentative short sale approval ASAP, meaning our law breaking listing agent would in retrospect have wasted all that time she did convincing the bank of "maximum" value. Buyer's mom is going to live there, so we used the "providing housing for elderly parents" exception to get primary residence interest rate pricing and down payment requirements. Mom probably has about 2 years left in her, then it's going to be a rental.
• REO to wholesale, Fannie Mae financed end-buyer. Fellow BPer in fact was the wholesaler, her end-buyer signed docs yesterday and picked it up for below appraised value. Our wholesaler got the idiots at BofA to accept an "all cash" offer for way the hell below actual value and a 60 day close of escrow. Note the quotes around "all cash." No human would believe that it was "all cash" offer if it needed a 60 day close, but big banks are stupid and not comprised of humans. Once it actually funds and records I'll probably make a thread about it; I learned a lot on this first time I've done a wholesale deal as a FNMA lender. 
• Retail MLS triplex. Seller was motivated by speed and certainty, not so much the dollar value. I sold the listing agent on the fact that I do a mortgage for this dude like every six months and with the buyer's permission sent some settlement paperwork over evidencing past success and some internal underwriting paperwork proving his calculated DTI was really as low as I claimed, and FICO was really as high as I claimed (blacked out his SSN etc). Nice little triplex cash flows positive on 20 year fixed financing and follows the 1% rule with change to spare.

So, there you are. Three anecdotes. No universal recipe for success, in fact I think what it actually highlights is that there are a variety of ways to tie up properties even in the most competitive seller's market in the country. When you're half awake in bed or thinking of strategy, i'd suggest thinking on "what are the motivations of the other parties in this proposed transaction?" - that's the only thing, I think, that ties all three together.