First time house hack in greater Boston area.

[Deven Swiergiel]

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Buffalo.

Purchase price: $825,000
Cash invested: $50,000

3-unit owner-occupied building in downtown Plymouth.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Needed a place for me and my partner to live while dipping our toes in real estate investing.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

It was actually under contract with a contingent offer for months, so I suspected something may be up because at the time the velocity of transactions was insanely high in my area and closing times were as low as a week. Had my realtor call to see what’s up and turns out the contingency was buyer can sell their house first but their financing was getting shaky. We offered asking price, they accepted and the original buyer backed out.

How did you add value to the deal?

Gave the seller the same terms as their original deal with the buyer that backed out so essentially it was a delayed closing on their end. Seller was also moving to France and left us fully furnished units, which was great for us as first time homebuyers and the seller didn’t have to worry about emptying the house. Ended up selling some of the furniture we didn’t want or need and recouped some closing costs.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

At the time the market was starting to cool down from its highs, and I think we could’ve got it for less in retrospect.