Multi family Investing

[Brian Puebla]

Hello everyone!

So I saw a multi family home for sale for 850,00k. It was partially rehabbed but needs more work. I was going to guess it may need 100k of rehab more (house actually looked like it was in decent livable condition but not sure if this is reasonable estimate still). The property is 6 units and average rent per unit is around 1150.

My question is... hypothetically speaking, if I were to pursue such, does this seem like a reasonless investment as it doesn’t follow the 1% rule but the rental income is quite great still and in a metropolitan area? AND what is the best way to go about purchasing a multi family such as this if you do not have the funds for such (I would only be able to put about 3% down! Although I’d be willing to move in AKA house hack if this helps the process).

Thank you all! Looking forward to some insight and wisdom!

[Jeff Copeland]

You can't "house hack" (in the typical sense of the term) a commercial property with 3% down. That would more commonly be done with an FHA loan, which requires a 3.5% down payment and is for residential properties (4 units or less).

Even if you could buy it with 3% down, it wouldn't cover the debt service on $824,500 (97% LTV).

Potential Gross Income on 6 units at $1150/ea = $82,800/yr (even less if you live in one of the units)

Less 50% for expenses, leaves a Net Operating Income of $41,400/yr. 

Debt service on $824,500 at 5% with a 25 year amortization would be $57,840/yr. 

In other words, the property would be cash flow negative (aka losing money) to the tune of about $16k/yr.