Newbie questions - deal analysis, mortgages, airbnb, mfg homes

[Christopher Benjamin]

Hello everyone-

I've been eating up the podcasts and blog posts regularly for the last 3 months, learning a ton, but now finally jumping into participating in the community. What a cool resource this is – thanks to anyone willing to help!

My situation is a bit unique and I'd love some guidance as I look to consider entering into real estate investing. I'm married, 32, live in Portland, OR where we bought a home in 2015. My wife and I both work in medicine and we make a good living. I work on the Oregon coast and spend half the week out there. After renting a place near my work regularly for years, I now regret waiting so long to buy where I'm working. Main reasons it seems to make sense: (1) we are in 33% tax bracket and would benefit from the tax deductions, (2) I am paying $500 monthly in rent that I can get back immediately with a house hack, (3) with a buy-and-hold approach, I think there is good appreciation potential for coast near Portland, and (4) there is large demand for rentals in the community with no supply.

A few questions:

1. I know the 2% rule is a goal not a standard but all the properties I’m looking at would get me right about 1%. I guess I’m curious if this is a reasonable thing for a first-timer or if I really should do more work to find a better deal (although I’m not remotely interested in common marketing strategies like sending out fliers).

2. One consideration is to get a two bedroom, get a tenant in one room, live in the other, but also airBnB my bedroom when I'm not there. Anyone else do mixed use rentals like this?

3. Finally, there are a lot of manufactured homes in my market. There are a couple I've been looking at but they are 35 years old and a contracting friend told me I might be biting off more problems than I might expect.  Would welcome anyone's 2-cents on this.

Thanks so much to anyone willing to help.

Chris

[Bill Regan]

Hey Chris,

Welcome to BP, you'll learn tons here! I think the 2% rule is right out the door in some markets, everything around me hits about 1% if its an MLS type deal. Get to know the calculators here on BP and you'll have a really good tool to deep analytics on any particular property.

To do a mixed rental you'd have to find a certain special kind of roommate/tenant for your other room.  Someone who is happy to have random strangers showing up with no control over the schedule.  You might find that person, but they may get sick of it and start walking around the apartment in 3 day old underwear while your AirBnB guests are there :)

I think you'd be better off Airbnb'ing the other bedroom and then your room when you aren't there as well.  You may find that just renting the one room is enough as AirBnB returns tend to be so much higher, and not even need to rent your room.

I don't have any input on manufactured housing other than to suggest an inspection prior to purchase.

Best of luck!