Is it worth to make an offer? Find duplex in Austin, TX

[Sergey Vasylkov]

Hello my BP friends,

I was on the hunt for duplex for a while an haven't submit any offers yet. Every time when I run numbers it doesn't make sense to pursued.

Asking price $240k 

I did my number base on $200k an still shows negative equity . My dilemma is it worth to make an offer that make sense to me even if its way bellow asking price or just move on to next one?

Here link with detail analyses on property.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/calculators/shared/3...

I would like your opinion on that.

Thank you for your help!

Sergey

[Eric Guiltinan]

Sergey, I'm doing what your doing in Austin but I may be couple of years ahead of you. My wife and I are currently living in our second Austin duplex and are looking to move into a third (we lived in each for over a year to satisfy the occupancy requirement). In fact, I'm considering the same property as you. I suppose that means you should take my advice with a grain of salt, but I'm sure that property will sell for more than 200k.  If you find a duplex in a half decent neighborhood in Austin that works based on those rules (2%, 50%) then run away.  It must be too good to be true.

Get good tenants at slightly below market rate, treat them with respect, handle the repairs yourself, don't buy in really bad areas, and your expenses will be much less than 50% on average.  

Just my 2 cents.