Hi, hoping to buy my first property in New Hampshire

[Patrick McCann]

Hello BP,

Pretty much my entire adult life I've planned to buy a multi family as my first property to owner occupy and offset the cost of a mortgage and not be house poor. Until recently I was nervous about making that leap and was unsure I was ready and knew I'd have to research first. I work full time as an Ironworker and the retirement benefits and such are great but I'd still like to supplement my income and somewhat be able to make my own schedule and I believe REI could do that for me. I've reached out to a real estate agent in my area who specializes in income properties and really dived into researching as much as I can and that's when I discovered BiggerPockets.

Ideally I’d like to purchase a 2 or 3 family in Rockingham County, NH to owner occupy. I have money saved, but I think I’d like to use money from annuity to put down and leave my savings as a security for expenses if needed. I don’t think it’s a terrible idea because I’d be taking investment money to reinvest in another way. I’m thinking it’s going to be tough finding a property in the given market because inventory seems limited and prices are high. Even with the high rental market it seems it is going to be tough to find a property that the income could at least cover most of the mortgage. Thanks BiggerPockets for opening my mind to all the information and possibilities to invest!

[Patrick McCann]

Quote from @Jonathan Bombaci:

Hi Patrick,

Yes southern NH is a great market. We have helped people househack numerous times in Manchester and Nashua. You’ll occasionally get MF’s in places like Salem, Derry, Londonderry, and surrounding towns but Manchester and Nashua have a much larger supply of MF’s. When you run your numbers you’ll find it very difficult to live for free or cashflow in a 2 family but you should be able to live at a steep discount on market rent in a 3 family and you should be able to live for free, maybe even cashflow while living there, in a 4 family. Prices are up and interest rates are brutal but rents have been increasing by leaps in bounds in southern NH over the last 24 months. Were putting quite a bit of capital into southern NH right now and should be over +300 units in NH by the end of the year. The prices aren’t as ridiculous as MA and rents are moving up at an alarming rate. To put it in perspective, we just rented a “nice” 2 bedroom in Rochester NH for $1700 and section 8 is paying 100% of the rent… 

FHA is still a great loan on a 3-4 family househack with 3.5% down and if rates dip in the next couple years you can always refinance out of the PMI at that time.

I suggest you network in the area and try to meet local investors. We host 6 free meetups in MA and NH in fact we have our Manchester NH meetup this Thursday. It's posted here on BP under the Events tab under the name Simplified REI. If you have trouble finding it and are interested just PM me. There are many great FREE meetups all over southern NH every month. Put yourself out there, get your preapproval, and you'll officially be "started".

Best,

Jon

 Hi Jon,

I appreciate your input. I do plan to do a FHA and refinance down the road. I certainly will look into the groups and meetups. Another thing I've considered is buying on the seacoast and doing STR and off season rental in the unit(s) that I wouldn't be occupying. Pre-approval should be completed on Monday and time to start searching!

Thanks,

Patrick