New RE Investor Looking to House-Hack Multi-Family

[Evangelos Stefanou]

My fiancé and I have been listening to BP and reading RE books like crazy the last two years. In that time, we've bought a single family house in NJ and condo in Philly. We are going to sell the SF house since the market is red hot and we can conservatively get a 40% return on it. 

Our goal is to use the proceeds from the house and buy a multi-family in Philadelphia, PA suburbs or NJ and since the market rent in the area in Philly where our condo is located is very expensive, we plan on renting that out and house-hacking the multi-family. We'd prefer the MF to be a fixer-upper and/or one that we can increase the value by increasing rents through renovation/other value adds to start a snowball BRRRR effect (pull our initial investment out and use it for the next).

If anyone has any insight on MF homes in the greater Philadelphia area/south Jersey, or knows a reliable contractor, we'd really appreciate the help. We're hoping for this to be the first step to a long, successful relationship with real estate. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Nicky Lisewski]

@Evangelos Stefanou

Sounds like you are off to a great start, Evangelos. 

I'm an agent and I help my clients find househacks in the Philly area. I just found myself a fixer in Delco and am planning a similar strategy.  I think for househacking the first question is your time frame. Are you planning to live there for the necessary year or perhaps longer?  For my clients that often affects the areas they are willing to look at. I'd also look at what areas work for any possible commute for your job.  At this point, do you have specific areas in mind?