All Forum Posts by: Daniel Okon

Wow! Thank you all for such great advice! I really appreciate the wonderful feedback from the BP community. @David S. I will be able to afford the fourplex first and I think in the end equity is more important for me right now starting off so I'll be looking at a couple of these in the next week, thanks for the solid advice. 

Again, I appreciate all the feedback, most would agree four income streams are better than two. It also helps if I don't have to find a roommate if I'm living in one unit of four rather than one unit of two. 

In the end it will come down to if the numbers work, I will go for the best solution with the best cash flow as @Kelly N. and others mentioned. This is good information to know because I think taking advantage of the FHA with more units just makes sense if the numbers do as well.

It is exciting times for sure @Jeff Joachim! I'm very excited to be able to share my success story someday! I agree with you there, the nice thing with how I am positioned is I have a really good friend who has a property management company and will give me great rates, so that will be handled by them. Hopefully that will keep me out of most of the issues. I will definitely have reserve cash if issues arise, but if I do indeed get a duplex I will make sure that everything is updated so the risk is hopefully lower due to my diligence. I understand unexpected things happen but I'm preparing myself as much as I can. Thanks for rooting for me! I'm sure I will be wishing I was down there come November! 

@Michael Williams I agree with you, there is always risk in anything and I appreciate the advice. I think it definitely did help me think a bit about which way I wanted to go. 

@Jane A. I appreciate your opinion. I am in the Minneapolis area and even though the price did drop steeply during the 2007-2008 dive I don't think it was a 70% drop. I also agree that it is less of a risk at 25%.

Either way I agree I should go with what's best after analyzing the best deal. It's just me as a single person so living in one unit for a year like that would be ok with me. The fourplex I'm looking at is about 937 square feet per unit, they are 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom. I wouldn't probably get a roommate, just would use one room as an office. Thanks for the input!

So I am just about to buy my first property. Let's go back a second and say that I am prepared to buy but haven't found Mrs. right yet. I have looked at a few duplexes and got a chance to hang out with a client of mine who flips houses and has done buy and hold in the past. He gave me the advice of staying away from the duplex because it wouldn't cover my expenses if something happened with the other side (I will be doing the FHA 3.5% down and live in for a year). I understand what he is saying that a fourplex is more "safe," but in the end is a duplex that much of a bigger risk than a triplex or a fourplex? Any advice is definitely welcome!

 That is a really good thing to know. I agree it seems to be expensive, unfortunately this is where I find a need to begin, thankfully I am single so I can also rent out a room or two on my side and ad some value while I'm living there for the year. Thanks for the thoughts Michael, any thoughts about areas in Minneapolis area that are a good value right now even if they are expensive?

 Thank you @Larry! I appreciate the idea I will definitely do that. I did start out in a nicer area where it is much more desirable so I will start to look at transitional areas as well. Excellent idea!

I am starting looking at duplexes and I am just not finding very good value especially because I am planning on doing the FHA 3.5% down and live there for a year starting out. I have found many duplexes that are around the 220,000-275,000 range that are only charging rent at the rate of 950-1250 per month on one side. I really was hoping to find a property that could essentially take care of the mortgage costs plus maybe a bit of the utility costs as well as some taxes as well. Is this a little too optimistic? In reality I've only been looking for the past couple weeks but is this something I should be looking off of mls? Any advice is recommended. I am out of the Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota.

Welcome @Michael C.! Good luck with your goals and I am devouring everything on this site as well. Hope you succeed in your goals!

Daniel