New member from Montgomery county, MD

[Farheen Akbar]

Hi everyone, I’m new to this community/real estate and would love to learn from your experience! My husband and I currently rent in North Bethesda/Rockville and we’re planning to buy a primary residence in Montgomery county in the next 6-12 months that I’m hoping to turn into a rental property eventually. I’m considering a few areas around the county:

Option 1- Buy a single family home in Derwood (where prices are lower, no HOAs, and they don’t have Rockville city taxes) or North Rockville. The range I would be aiming for there would be $450-550 K. Ideally I would like to find a place where I can rent out the basement.

Option 2- Buy a town house (or condo IF I can find one with HOA below $200) in parts of Rockville and North Bethesda that are metro accessible or North Potomac in the range of $500-600 K.

Option 3- Buy a house in Silver Springs, ideally near red or future purple line in the range of $450-550 K

Since this will be our primary residence for at least 5 years, I want to make sure it’s an area where our commute to work wouldn’t be horrendous (I work in Bethesda and my husband works in DC). But I also want to consider appreciation of the home value and ease of renting out the property when we’re ready to do that.

Is it better to pay more to get a smaller place /townhouse in North Bethesda/North Potomac or get more land/house in Derwood/North Rockville for a lower cost?

Would we even be able to rent out our basement and/or the entire house if we get it in Derwood? I’m not sure what the rental market is like over there.

How much weight should we be putting on school ratings? Some areas of Derwood and Silver Springs don’t have the best school ratings (but subjectively I hear from the patently the schools are great).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

@Russell Brazilyou’ve had great advice for people in the DMV area and I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Farheen