Hello from Waukesha, WI

[Nathan Pennington]

Hello,

After lurking around for a bit, I decided to sign up for a BiggerPockets account and join in the conversation (actually, mostly asking questions at this point).

I live in Waukesha, WI and I own my tiny house outright :-)

I'd like to start investing in multi-family real estate (duplex, triplex, four-plex), and I have two questions for the community here . . .

1) From what I've read so far, it seems that under four units, multi-family properties usually aren't valued by a CAP rate, but still, I'm curious. What's a good/average CAP rate for Waukesha (if anyone one knows)? Also, I'd be curious if parts of Milwaukee often has better CAP rates. I'd guess the answer is yes, but just curious if anyone here has experience with that in my area.

2) Does one go and pre-qualify for a mortgage for a small multi-family property like one does for buying a primary residence? Or do you need to have the deal first and then go apply? I'm just not sure if it works like when you go and buy a house to live in.

Thanks,
Nathan

[Dawn Anastasi]

Milwaukee (at least parts of it) you can get much lower priced properties than you can in Waukesha. You do see higher prices there and some higher rents.

I hope you would be able to join the Milwaukee meet-up on January 25th and you can meet other members from the site.