BRRRR in New England?

[Carey Gatto]

Hi, Has anyone successfully implemented the BRRRR strategy in a New England market? I'm in MA and am looking in Manchester, NH, but my agent told me it will be hard to make the numbers work there. Would also consider ME, RI and CT. Thanks!

[Charlie MacPherson]

@Carey Gatto In Mass, look to the South Shore.  Plymouth, Norfolk and Bristol counties all have very good MBTA Commuter Rail service, so commuting into Boston (where the bulk of the jobs are) isn't the nightmare that commuting on RT 3 is

Prices are a LOT more reasonable than inside RT 128 and there are some very nice towns there too.

However, if you're considering Maine, the cost of housing is far lower than Mass.  Rents are lower too, but not proportionally so.  In Mass, it's nearly impossible to find a 2% property (gross rents are at least 2% of the purchase price), except in some pretty tough areas or in the central/western parts of the state.  Inside RT 128, it's rare to find even a 1% property.  Much of the Boston market is at 0.6% or less.

In Maine, there are 2%+ properties everywhere.  For example, I just picked a random duplex in Waterville. It's listed at $79,000 and shows a gross income of $18,600.  That's 2.35%.

The expensive areas in Maine are greater Portland and some (not all) coastal towns.  Once you get north of Brunswick and a little away from the coast, prices are really low, especially compared to Portland.

Oddly, it's fairly common for rentals here in Maine to include heat in the rent, so if you're out in the middle of the winter and need to warm up, you know your tenants will have their apartments at a nice cozy 95 degrees.  I'd try to avoid that.