House Hack Deal Need Opinions/help/comments

[John Olsen]

I'm looking at a duplex property today.  Each unit has 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom.  Unit 1 get's $825 in rent (1st floor), and has all new floors and appliances.  Unit 2 (upstairs) also is 1 bedroom 1 bathroom & receives $650 rent, but could use new flooring and appliances, however, the tenant has been living upstairs for 13 years (section 8 tenant) so I don't plan on bothering them too much.  The total rent of the 2 properties is $1,475.  Here's a breakdown:

Rent: $1,475

PITI: $890

Water: tenant pays

Trash: tenant pays

Snow: tenant pays

electric: tenant pays

Gas: $80

Property management: $148/mo. (10%)

Vacancy: $74 (5%)

Repairs: $74 (5%)

CapEx: $103 (7% of GI)

 Monthly Cash Flow: $106

My question is: The home was built in 1896, however, it's in growing city and in a great location.  I know the numbers are tough to calculate for somebody in a different area, but I wanted to see what questions people had and concerns with the older property etc.  

[Kyle Longacre]

Hello John, 

Unless there is significant upside potential in the long run and you plan to raise rents, this deal doesn't have a lot of meat on the bone. Being this old, do you know how long before you would need to replace the roof? If you drop to 10% vacancy which is usually the conservative estimate when running quick numbers, your cash flow would be wiped out.