Two single family homes on one parcel in Columbus, Ohio

[Jen A.]

Hi! I am looking at my first deal and would love some feedback as I have stumbled onto an odd situation which could have some potential, but seems a little too good to be true. I am a total newbie and need some advice!

Property: Two single family homes on one lot, 3/1 in front and 1/1 in rear. Both properties are currently 100% livable and have been fixed up to an average level. We are planning to install new kitchens, fix up bathrooms, etc over time. Popular central neighborhood.

Goal: Would like to live in the big house and rent out the small house. Long term plan being to sell or keep both as rentals as they have been rented consistently for 5+ years (big house) and 15+ years (little house).

Asking price: $225k. We were able to look at it before it went on the market and the seller is giving us the first option to buy. There is a line of people after us who are interested once it goes up.

Rental rate: Big house - $1700 when tenants moved out 2 months ago, little house - $500 (current, hasn't raised rent in 15 years) to $900-1000 (average for neighborhood)

Sales comps: I looked on Zillow/Redfin at recently sold houses in the neighborhood and it looks like similar 3/1s are selling for $200-225k. I can't find any 1/1 comps that are SFH, only condos, which are $80-100k.

Financing: Because the property is nonconforming, we can only get a portfolio loan of 3/1, 5/1, or 7/1 ARM with 20% down. The only way to get it to conform is to solve...

The water problem: Both are on one water/sewer line, so new lines would need to be run ($15-20k rough estimate) to split the property, which we would need to do to refinance to two separate 30-year fixed mortgages or to sell the houses separately.

Options, as far as I can tell:

• Buy and hold with ARM and pay adjustable rate
  A bad idea?
• Buy with ARM and try to sell as-is to another investor within 3-5-7 years
  Might be a tough sell w/ the issues we've found
• Buy with ARM, run sewer lines, split property, and refi both w/ 30 year fixed to rent or sell
  Will I make enough money renting one/both to make it worth it? Can I even sell a 1/1 with no garage on half a lot? No comps that I can find
• Buy with ARM, knock down 1/1 house, leaving conforming 3/1 to refi w/ 30 year fixed
  Don't want to do this, but trying to think outside the box here...
• Don't buy it
  This is sounding like the best idea now...

I like both houses and can see some potential but this is getting pretty complicated. What am I missing? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!