Current Competitiveness of Multifamily Market for FHA loans

[John Powers]

Hi BP,

Looking for some insight on the current competitiveness for FHA loan shoppers looking to house hack in the greater Boston area. What type of offers can I expect to compete with? I hear of cash offers coming in well over listing price, waived inspections, etc. We will most likely be getting pre-approved in April and will start looking with our agent.

Also, has anyone had experience with all-cash offer programs offered by lenders like accept.inc?

Any advice or tips on how to compete would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

John

[Jonathan Bombaci]

@John Powers the greater Boston market is very competitive and multi-family inventory is very scarce right now. That being said we help tons of investors using FHA or low downpayment loans purchase multi-family properties all over MA and NH. We have teams on Boston, Worcester, Lowell, and Manchester. Every agent is an investor themselves and about 1/2 of them have used FHA to househack their own property, including myself. It's definitely possible but you'll need a strategy. @Todd Wheatley my greater Boston team lead can go deeper on these but basically we either strike fast and try to be the first offer in. If it’s a weak agent or nervous seller we can sometimes get them to cancel the open house. Or wait 10 days and cherry pick from the properties that are still on the market, meaning they survived the 1st weekend without any offers for some reason. Recently we’ve had good success by using the weather and holidays to our advantage. In this market you need a strategy to have an edge but we hope to see inventory open up a bit more in the late spring. 

Best,

Jon