All Forum Posts by: Brendan L.

@Meghan McCallum Thanks for that straightforward and unexpected advice. Real estate is inherently local, huh? Reminds me that so much depends on good relationships beyond just the business side. In real estate, where to these kinds of good relationships with local officials pay dividends for an investor?

I'm looking a property that is zoned as 2 units, but has an attic studio with separate water/heat. My goal would be to live in the studio and rent the 2 units below. Would I run into any issues, legal or otherwise, by doing this? Would I benefit from having it rezoned to 3? If I want to eventually move out and rent the studio, must I have it rezoned to rent that out? Thanks!

Hey @Moshe H. , I've been going non-stop on BP, its great stuff! Living in one side of a duplex is the exact start I want. I could probably pull off forgoing the FHA and go conventional but 2 things: I know I have at least 2-3 more years in my current job, which might seem like enough to get started doing this? But I worry about not being able to sell when I'm ready to leave. Maybe that's just the inherent risk, and maybe I won't want to sell if I can go forward with renting both sides.

Second is, if I build it, will they come? The uncertainty of not finding a tenant, even when I'm living in the place, given population decline and overall lack of real attractions, is a little halting. I mean, worst case scenario like you said, other side is vacant, and I still actually save money because I can make the mortgage be significantly less than my current rent. But again, what happens in 2-3 years? Will it be on the market for a year and I'll be stuck with a second mortgage payment? Will I sell at a loss? That would be a real bummer. I dunno, I'd love to hear from you, @Robin First , or others about mitigating these risks

Good to see recent discussion- I also live in North Adams and would love to be able to profit from a rental property in town.  @Moshe H. I agree, I've seen the town is moving in a positive direction in the ~2 years I've been here with some new businesses- I didn't know about the Vision 2030 plan, thanks for sharing. 

As a first timer, I worry about a lot of things though- mostly around being able to find tenants and losing money to vacancy rates. Looking on craigslist, I'd score the livability of a lot of places I see as moderate to low- there don't seem to be many updated, decent looking places to live. You'd think by providing a decent product, you'd have an upper hand finding tenants, but I just don't know for sure. The big thing stopping me is what happens when no one rents for an entire year, and I'm ready to move out to another job? Maybe see how the renting goes over the next 2-3 years and decide from there whether I hold or sell, I guess.

A lot of foreclosed or abandoned buildings up on the hills- there was one for around 20k that looked like a great base, until I saw it has asbestos siding, so who knows what else is inside the building. I worry about their location up there though, too. I can't help but think near MCLA is the only reasonable option if I want to find tenants- I would think people actually moving to the area for jobs would gravitate to Pittsfield and Williamstown. 

There were 44 duplex sales in NAMA in the last year or so, not too scary low number, as far as exit goes. Population is declining all over Berkshire county, a little nerve wracking when trying to get into REI locally.

Another thing I've noticed is how the houses are built on top of each other. There is so little space on the land that a lot of these buildings sit, its kind of ridiculous.