Ultimate Historic House Hack

[Nathan McBride]

I purchased a 6-unit multifamily with my partnership LLC almost three years ago. The property was built by a wealthy developer in the 1930's as a ~5200 sqft duplex (the mother-in-law lived upstairs apparently), but over the years has been split into five apartments with a sixth apartment added in the garage.

A little over two years ago, my wife and I purchased a house to live-in-flip, expecting to make a ~$75k in tax-free profit.  Now that the market has gone absolutely insane, we stand to potentially double our profit on the flip.

We have been looking for the next live-in-flip project over the past few months with no luck.  We've been outbid by $20--40k on homes that require a full, gut renovation (did I mention this market is crazy?)!

Anyway, we decided to "lease-purchase" the 6-unit from the LLC, reinvest the proceeds from our live-in-flip and complete the purchase with a 30-yr conventional mortgage once we convert the property to a triplex with a garage apartment.

In this scenario, we will have a ~3300 sqft historic home with three apartments generating a total of $2625 in rent.  Plus, we get to take advantage of the ridiculously hot market with our sale without having to turn around and buy at an inflated price.

The rehab is going to be a challenge, but I am wholeheartedly looking forward to it.  Maybe we should start a blog... haha

Anyway, here is a photo of the house, "Casablanca." 

*The Volkswagen size window unit has been removed since this photo was taken.