Looking to purchase in the Birmingham Metro Market

[Preston Wallace]

Hey All,

This week I accepted a job with a company in Alabaster. This was long over due as I had to put my search for my next house hack on hold back in May because I was uncertain if I wanted to remain in the Montgomery area. Now that I know where I will be I am happy to be back looking for that next house. While I could commute from Prattville, which I will be doing until I find a property, I know I will grow tired of this quickly. Thus I am setting my sights on the Birmingham market. I do have some familiarity with the neighborhoods already, as I spend a good bit of time on the weekends visiting friends. But I would love some feed back from some locals. 

I'm keeping my options fairly open at this point in terms of location and degree of work needed to be ready to move in but I do have a few things in mind. 

-Multifamily up to a quad - I have been house hacking a SFH for the past two years. I am not bothered by having a roommate. But I have a dog that can be rambunctious at times and I get paranoid that he might be annoying to a tenant. At the same time I feel guilty leaving him in his kennel all the time. I know a multifamily would give some of the financial independence that is great about house hacking but also provide some privacy so Chipper can enjoy his life outside of a cage. But I imagine like in the Montgomery area, these properties are hard to come by.

-Live N Fix/BRRRR - My plan is eventually to start BRRRRing properties and I'm actually reading the book on estimating rehab costs currently. I would like to give it a test run before I dive head first and kind of have that safety net to fall into of it being my primary residence if things went not as planned. Biggest down side would be potentially extending that 2 hour round trip commute a few months longer than planned depending on the degree to which the property needs to be improved.

- Move in Ready - For simplicity, I have considered the move in ready route then attempting option 2 in a year once I can move out. I would look at a SFH for this and try to find a roommate that I know well enough to trust living with and would also not care about the dog. Obvious down side is the lack of value add, maybe I could offset this in a high appreciation area though.

Like I mentioned, this is a very fluid process but I would love to hear any feed back or ideas. I do plan on holding this next property as a long term rental as well.