Looking at First Investment Property; Single Apartment

[Ross Ohendalski]

Need some advice on a property I’m looking at, which would be my first investment property. I am about to graduate college so I started keeping an eye out for investment opportunities recently. I found an apartment listed for $165K. It’s an owner finance, which I thought would be a plus for someone in my situation with little lending history.

The apartment has three bedrooms that can rent for $500/bedroom/month according to owner, but I have looked at the complex and other apartments are renting for $560, so maybe a little room to increase the price. It's a college town so that's the reason for the per room basis. PITI and HOA payments would work out to $1,052 combined. It looks like it's in good shape but let's say 10% for repairs and 5% vacancy, so $225 combined. I'll be self-managing the property.

The way I see it, expenses are working out to $1,277 with revenue of $1,500 so it seems solid. I can understand that apartments are not going to appreciate like single family or multi, and they might now appreciate at all, but I just wanted to see what I might be missing here or what I may not have considered? Also, is it just a terrible idea to have ownership of a single apartment? Any comments y’all have would be appreciated greatly!