All Forum Posts by: Adam Michel

 Touché! Appreciate the advice nonetheless.

Agree, it's doing nobody favors in my market; market rents here are barely enough to cover PITI in most cases when paying current valuations, not keeping pace with recent price increases. I have some cash, but likely not enough to fund a purchase without bank financing, and especially not when factoring extensive rehab costs into the equation (may need to up my knowledge on creative financing to bridge this). Additionally, many properties on MLS in need of rehab are in C-/D class neighborhoods which I have no interest in living/owning in (at least starting off).

Where would you recommend sourcing off-market deals for newbies such as myself? 

Appreciate the insights. House hacking seems to be the best route, purely from a cost of living reduction standpoint. I've been analyzing deals as if I were renting the entire place out (rather than half/owner-occupying) to be conservative, so maybe that is skewing my outlook. I've been reading up on creative financing lately to build more familiarity, and agree that could be another alternative avenue to conventional mortgage/FHA to open new doors. Open to off-market as well, but again need to bridge my knowledge gap on creative financing; definitely don't have the capital for all-cash/rehab-heavy properties.

As the title suggests, I've been on the market for my first property for the past month and a half, and have been searching for SF and Duplex properties in my area of interest of Northeast OH (Canton, Massillon, North Canton, Canal Fulton, Green, Uniontown). Goal in mind is to establish my (and soon to be wife's) primary residence/house hack whilst rebuilding reserves for future investment. Issue is, almost every single property I underwrite seems to have pretty mediocre projected returns: ~0-4% COC, 8-15% IRR over 10 yrs, at best. I know it is still down season, so listings are thin (especially for MF which is our preferred route), but it is starting to discourage me; like we've already missed the train of cheap debt and rapid appreciation/inflation that so many others took advantage of in recent years.

Are my expectations set too high for my target area? Am I being impatient? Am I doing something wrong in my underwriting methodology? 

Would love to hear from others in similar situations or with more experience. Open to sharing further details regarding strategy/search criteria, or hearing suggestions!

 Appreciate your reply! Unfortunately looking like this specific deal likely won't pan out; seller is definitely not motivated to offload quickly/discounted based on their replies.

I found a realtor through BP who I'm now working with to find a property, so progress in the right direction!

You've given me some solid pointers/items to take into consideration for future deal analysis, so thank you for that. To answer your last question, my realtor has contractor contacts I should be able to leverage for rehab budget estimates, as well as family friends with experience in the construction trades. Hopefully that upfront diligence plus a healthy contingency budget would suffice to keep me out of that scenario, otherwise I would foresee a guaranteed loss, or underperformance at the very least.

I'm looking to purchase my first property with my fiancé (both 25) with the goal being to establish our primary residence together, as well as giving me the opportunity to add equity/value via rehab before moving on and converting the property into a rental within a year or so to kickstart an investment portfolio.

An interesting lead that recently came up is my parent's neighbor's house. The couple living there was elderly when I was growing up, and we recently found out that they passed away a couple years ago. Their children (now in their late 40s) inherited the house, but they have not listed it on the market, and I heard that neither is willing to move into it from their current setup, so the property has been sitting vacant. I found the son on Facebook and sent a quick intro giving my condolences, expressed my interest in purchasing the property, and provided my phone # in case he decides to follow up.

I'm in the process of preapproval with a couple lenders, and have reached out to a couple realtors in my area to see which may be a good fit. However, seeing as though I have already sourced the deal myself, would it still be in my best interest to use a realtor for this transaction if it works out? 

Any advice on this and experience/tips from others having gone through similar deals would be greatly appreciated!