First time investor - fourplex in Portland area

[Wendy McIntire]

Hi all, my husband and I have been looking to invest in real estate in the Portland or Vancouver WA area. We are moving up there from CA so ideally want to live in the property first to get a good loan, then move to a bigger place and rent this one out. Initially our though was to do SFH, but we've started looking into duplex and fourplexes. We've found a multi unit complex that seems to cashflow pretty well based on the current lease rents and what our mortgage would be. While living in this fourplex we'd only be paying about $500/mo out of pocket. Once we move the total monthly cash flow on top of mortgage but before other costs would be around $1500/mo. The place has been recently updated, however one unit (the one we'd initially live in) would require some rehab which we are fine with. Does this initially sound like a good investment? Or what more information would you need to get to determine?

Also, we aren't familiar with demographics of tenants in Portland, we felt very comfortable with renting a SFH in Vancouver (likely to young families) but this four plex would likely be to singles, working professionals, etc and would likely have higher turnover we'd have to factor.

Any insight or things to consider?

[Mike Nuss]

@Wendy McIntire what are the size and br/bath counts on those units? I own a few very well located, fully renovated, historic 4plexes and not one of them brings in $8,800 per month. I have a couple that bring in around 8k, but to get $8,800 this building should have larger units. 

Be careful using “projected rents”. Brokers in Portland tend to get a little aggressive in their marketing of small multi family props. If your potential property really brings in $8800, it would fly off the market at 1.1mm here. 

I’m definitely making some assumptions, but wanted to point this out as I have seen a lot of bad purchases for 2-4 units in Portland. I’ve also seen some awesome 2-4 unit purchases though and highly agree with @Neal Collins about a 4 unit building being a great house hack opportunity.