Househacking in Boston

[Remy Bonser]

Hello, I am currently a tenant in East Boston living in a 3-unit multifamily house. I am interested in starting my real estate investing journey with a house hack. I would like to get some input into how difficult or challenging that may be, particularly in the Boston area. Also, would doing a house hack with a friend be a good or bad idea? Any advice or pointers would be great! Thank you!

[Lior Rozhansky]

@Remy Bonser It's certainly possible, but you need to figure out and understand the different sub markets within Boston you want to tackle and how to evaluate those deals. East Boston is pretty tricky for rental as multies are more valued based on condo potential rather than "true rental property". It'll be tough to make numbers work if you are buying a three fam for 900K+ that needs updates. 

There are other pockets of opportunity within Boston though, from pockets in Dorchester/Roxbury to areas like Roslindale. At the end of the day, you just have to learn prices and rents in these areas and how to evaluate them. Also, if you are buying older, non-renovated multies you'll want to thoroughly assess things like current condition and needed work (since such a large % of inventory here is from early 1900s etc). Hopefully that made sense, but house hacking is definitely the path to get in the game!