Where Do I Start?: Newbie search for Duplex

[Dannielle Givens]

Hi BP,

I am currently in Chicago and am beginning my real estate journey. I've become extremely interested in learning hands on when it comes to real estate through house hacking. After doing my research, it seems that a duplex would best fit my comfort level. Currently I've made searches leveraging Zillow, but find the results to be confusing and not as detailed. I've narrowed down searches through using the terms "multi-family" and "duplex". What tools would you leverage and how do you use them to find the best deal? I'm looking to purchase my first property (currently in an apartment, renting) within 18 months. 

Thank you in advance, 

Dannielle

[John Matthews]

@Dannielle Givens Congrats on making this decision!

That said, if I were you, I'd start networking with real estate agents if you're looking for deals on the market. While you can buy deals on the market by yourself (using the sellers realtor as your agent) I'm not sure that I recommend this for your first deal, so you're going to need a realtor eventually, may as well start now. They'll help you drill down more accurately. Listings on Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, etc. often have multifamily listed as condo or singlefamily, so it may take some extra work to figure out what's what. That said, if you CAN locate a property which is actually a duplex but it's listed as a SFR, you may have a leg up on the competition since they may not know that.

There are benefits of working directly with the sellers agent, like the potential for better prices, but it may not be worth it since they likely have the seller's interest above yours.

Otherwise you may be able to find duplexes on Loopnet as well.

Best of luck!