All Forum Posts by: David Casey

Hello, I’m a long term investor / lover of RE. I’ve completely rehabbed multiple primary residences trading up each time. (I’m shocked my wife has not divorced me yet.. ). We’ve also acquired a three 3 family houses and used the cashflow to pay for a second home all while working my full time day job for the last 18 years. I’m at a point in my career where I have come to the conclusion that I want to go further into real estate and gradually move away from my day job. I’m looking to move into larger multi family properties with the goal to initially replace my W-2., build passive income and equity to teach my kids the value of. We have decent equity in the investment properties and wanted to ask whether it would make more sense to sell all 3 and 1031 into a 10-20 unit or keep them and take out a home equity line for the down payment? Thanks, David

Welcome Brandon, I’m pretty new here as well but have owned a few small multi family investment properties for years. My advice would be to look for a small duplex where you can live in one side and rent the other. I did that for my first house in 2000 and lived there until we had kids and grew out of the space. I turned it into condos and made more 3 x what I paid for it. I’d look for properties that you can add value to, perhaps expanding the number of bedrooms or units to get more rent or possibly splitting the land if there is enough for a developable lot. Best of luck.

Thanks Daniel, good advice, I appreciate the response.

Thanks Kristina, good advice, this property was built in the 1800’s was always used as a 5 Family but during the crash in 2008 went into disrepair and the town now legally considers it vacant land. The town desperately needs housing but they have a parking issue and therefore require 2 spots per unit within 800 ft of house. I figured if my math is right with renovation costs and I can find a nearby vacant lot it may be worth the effort but your general advice is there are easier ways of doing this and the juice may not be worth the squeeze?

Hello I have an accepted contract on a 5plex / 6K Sq ft 25 Room 15 Bed  MF that has been abandoned and reclassified as illegal non conforming.  In order to bring this back into conformance the property will require 10 off street parking spaces which do not exist on the property and be brought fully up to code with sprinklers and fire alarm systems.   I am looking into other nearby lots to see what is available but wondered if anyone has experience with this sort of dilemma and whether its worth the effort.  The property is relatively cheap 75k + 30 - 40k for parking, needs almost total interior rehab, good bones, roof, siding, windows in good shape.     I'm budgeting $50.00 a sq  (300k) to renovate the interior: plumbing, electric, 5 kitchens, 5 baths 5 new hvac systems.  When fixed will rent at roughly 5500 - 6K a month.  Is that budget realistic in Massachusetts?  Any advice when going to zoning board, when does it make sense to hire a lawyer?  Any and all thoughts appreciated. 

Thanks Charles, I'll try and make it to another city. 

Hello I have an accepted contract on a 5plex / 6K Sq ft 25 Room 15 Bed  that has been abandoned and reclassified as illegal non conforming.  In order to bring this back into conformance the property will require 10 off street parking spaces which do not exist on the property and be brought fully up to code with sprinklers and fire alarm systems.   I am looking into other nearby lots to see what is available but wondered if anyone has experience with this sort of dilemma and whether its worth the effort.  The property is relatively cheap 75k + 30 - 40k for parking, needs almost total interior rehab, good bones, roof, siding, windows in good shape.     I'm budgeting 50k a sq  (300k) to renovate the interior: plumbing, electric, 5 kitchens, 5 baths 5 new hvac systems.  When fixed will rent at roughly 5500 - 6K a month.  Is that budget realistic in new England?  Any advice when going to zoning board, when does it make sense to hire a lawyer?  Any and all thoughts appreciated. 

Hi Charles, do you plan to have a seminar in MA?