Thoughts on this multi-family property? Looking to buy our first.

[Sara Furlong]

My husband and I have decided we want to begin buying multi-family homes. Our goal right now is to find one to owner-occupy while we save up for our next one.

We want the first one to be very easy, cheap, and manageable. We also want it to be close to my parents (my dad is sick) and to have a nice yard and enough bebdrooms for our kids.

We found this one that meets those criteria:

http://www.trulia.com/property/3239871852-114-S-Main-St-Canastota-NY-13032

It's actually way nicer inside than I expected given there are no pictures. (It is an estate.) The house seems solid.

When we looked at it, we thought it was the one, because the upstairs apartment would come close to paying our mortgage, insurance, and taxes.

Then, after some calling around, we discovered the stairs to the upper apartment aren't up to code. We got an estimate to rebuild and it was $15K that we don't want to spend out-of-pocket.

SHOULD WE:

-Look into FHA203Ks to buy the house and fix the stairs?

-If we do that, should we drop our offered price accordingly? What would you offer?

-We probably shouldn't make an offer requiring them to fix the stairs because it's an estate, right?

-Scrap this property and wait for a better one?

Looking forward to hearing your insights. Thanks!

[Ben Dao]

I am a big believer in buying a multi-family for your first rental. If you can live in that great . If the rehab is too much , I think you should ask for the discount. Since it is an estate sale , you are right and should not make them fix anything. I would somehow figure out how to rehab it even if slowly. It sounds like the neighborhood is good so it might be worth the upfront work.