Purchasing first multi family

[Raymond N.]

Hello biggerpockets family, my wife and I are first time posters onto the forum and we are excited to be here. 

So, we are looking to buy our first multi family house, it is 2 units and located in Manchester, ct. 

Just looking for some guidance, what should we know going in? 

[Tim Herman]

@Raymond N. Even if you are going to house hack you are not going to be living there forever. It needs to cash flow after you move to your next property. For me if it doesn't meet the 1% rule i don't bother. i'll use an example. each side of duplex rents $600. Principal and interest on $180000 mortgage is $966. You talk to your wife. Look Honey our costs for our apartment are only $366, we better buy today. Oh oh owner pays utilities $500 a month. Insurance $100 a month. taxes $200 a month. Darn renter stopped paying $600 a month. Have to file an eviction $500.  You can see you have to account for all these costs. When I ran the numbers on the calculator the  property would need to be rented at $1000 per side to show a $50 positive cash flow with 5% down.