Newbie investor buying a Tri-plex in south florida

[Aaron Howard]

Hi BP!

Would appreciate a little feedback from my fellow BPers! Here is the story...bought a fixer upper a couple years ago and have a nice bit of equity in it now(its my primary residence). I took out 115K worth of equity out of it and have another 60K in savings. I am an active realtor in the area as well(fairly new in the biz).

I have been looking around for a investment property for the last 3 or 4 months and doing my homework on real estate investing in general. I have considered several different options, and have decided that i really want rental income and would like to start building my portfolio to something substantial. I have been looking for multifamily and have found something i like. Its a Tri-plex that is 10 min from my house in an "up and coming" area. All the units are 2 beds with 1 bath and the previous owner has done some updates and over all the building is in very good condition. 2 of the 3 units are currently rented out at $675 each for a total of $2025 total income per month. The tenants are staying and i will take over their leases and security deposits. The asking price is $115K. Being an active realtor i have access to MLS and did my own comparative analysis and think the property is only worth about 80K to 85K at most. I know the owner is motivated and actually just purchased the property about 8 months ago for 74K, but did do some up grades and other work to it. It is also in an rough neighborhood which worrys me a little.

Is this a good investment? It seems like it at first appearance seeing how ill be making over 2K a month but do Multi family appreciate as much as a single family home would? Especially in that area?? Its basically turnkey...little to no work needs to be done with these units. If its such a good investment, why is the owner selling only after 8 months of owning it? (his realtor claims he got re-located to an area about an hour away...) Am i missing anything?

Any input is greatly appreciated!!!!