Looking at starting with 8+ units has anyone here done this?

[Silvia Baier]

I guess the word "starting" is a bit misleading because...

We have a SFH we have been renting out for several years. We have been overseas for 10 years and moving back in August (yay!) So I guess in a sense, we are "starting" with MFH!

This is our current plan:

- Buy 8+ unit complex (how do we decide how many units is too many?? I saw a 1,392 unit place on Loopnet and actually thought about it for a minute!!)

- Occupy one or two of the units until we stabilize, then maybe buy a house?

- Manage the property ourselves

So, a couple questions!

1. Is this a realistic idea for the Columbia MD area? That's where we are moving.

2. Let's say the loan is $3m. What is a good target interest rate and terms? 10y @ 6%? So $33k/mo payment?

3. Assuming #2, and rental income of $50k/mo (ex. 25 units @ $2000), how much would we reasonably expect to take home (Net rental income not counting taxes)? Are we missing any big monthly/recurring expenses? For that many units, would we need to hire anyone full time? I am handy and I could handle the finances, website, screening etc. but I would need to hire contractors for some things of course. And I assume I would need a 24 hour hotline of some sort...

4. If anyone is willing to hold our hand a bit while we look at this, we would appreciate it!

5. Back to #1... does it make sense to do this?! We don't want to pay rent, and the SFH's are priced so high right now. Plus interest rates are crazy. We want to leverage multiple units to pay for our housing and maybe even get some cash flow. I will also have a FT job, at least until I can replace my income....

We would need to raise some capital / find partners because we couldn't afford a down payment of the size we are thinking by ourselves.

Looking to network in Maryland! I did not apply a location to this post because the my questions mostly apply to any market. Never done this before but it looks so lucrative!

Thank you!!!!!