All Forum Posts by: Jennifer B.

Thanks @Chris Johnson for the response. 

At this point, we are looking for cash flow. Luckily, we would not owe any taxes on the sale. Thanks for the advice on running the numbers for duplexes and triplexes. We've started looking at that as well.

Jen

We're looking for help in deciding whether to sell or rent our previous home in SW Portland. We're currently living in Beaverton because we needed a more accessible home because my mom had to move in with us, plus a better commute since I work in Beaverton. We're hoping to get some thoughts from anyone, but would really love to hear from folks familiar with the Portland market. Stats on the house:

• PITI is $1,864.
• Valued at about $475K with $250K still owed to the bank.
• 1500 square feet, 3 bed, 2 bath on 2 main levels, nicely remodeled with views of Mt. Hood and downtown, plus a 600 square feet budget finished basement with full bath - basement not currently legal living space.
• Located in SW Portland on Marquam Hill between Barbur and Terwilliger, just 1 mile south of downtown, walking distance to OHSU and 1 block to the bus line.
• It was built on 1908, and is a unique old PDX situation in that there is no street running in front of the house (the original street was vacated when Barbur Blvd was put in). Imagine a flag lot situation where you have to park on the street and walk downhill on a sidewalk past 2 other houses to get to it. Difficult access when dealing with renovating, etc.
• Great location for access to OHSU and downtown though.

Here are our options:

1. Sell as is and use the proceeds to invest in a small multifamily - duplex, triplex or fourplex.
2. Invest about $50K into making the basement a legal ADU. Then rent out the upper portion as a 3/2 for $2500 and the basement as a 1/1 for about $1000 per month. Making the basement a legal ADU would require removing the concrete and digging the floor down some to get to legal ceiling height,
3. Another option would be to make the basement legal living space with less stringent permitting requirements by legalizing the old basement stairs -- not sure how much that would cost -- guessing 10-15K. This would add 600 square feet of legal living space to the house, but it wouldn't be an ADU. We would still probably sell. I'm not sure how much more we would get for it as a rental. There aren't any single family homes for rent in our area currently.

The ADU option would require our getting a loan for the 50K to get it done. We're currently carrying 2 mortgages and have a kid in college so it would be somewhat of a challenge for us financially, but doable.

What do you think? Thanks in advance for your responses.

I'll be there too. Can't wait!

Thanks for all of your input. All of these points are well taken. We are considering all of this. Not sure if the extra income is worth the headaches we might be in for. I intend learn as much as I can here on BP and by talking with other local investors before making any big decisions.

Thanks for all of the welcome messages. I'm definitely up for a meetup.

Hi Steve - Thanks so much for your extensive reply - extremely helpful!

It definitely seems like an obvious choice to sell it. We've never spent that much money on RE before though so it makes us nervous. We certainly want to avoid making any disastrous mistakes. I look forward to hearing what other have to say as well.

Hi Bill, thanks for the welcome!

Hi everyone! I'm brand new to Bigger Pockets and a complete newbie. My husband and I live in Portland, OR and currently own some farmland in another state which is cash rented and brings in 20K per year in income. The only expenses we have on it are the property taxes. It's easy income with no headaches, but we wonder if we could do better with multifamily real estate, plus we'd like to diversify. This land was purchased by family members in the 1950s and, if sold, would bring us about $600K in cash that would need to be rolled over to other RE to avoid significant capital gains. This would still leave us with 10K in yearly income from the remainder of the farmland that we plan on keeping.

We're thinking about taking action next year. I'm learning as much as I can now, but am intimidated by all the choices and complexity. If you were a beginner in this situation, would you purchase a couple of 2-4 plexes free and clear in our own backyard, look out of state in a less expensive area to purchase more properties free and clear or try to leverage some of the money? My husband does not want to leverage too much, since we have zero loans on the RE that we have now and he's getting close to retirement.

As I said, I'm trying to learn as much as I can now on BP, the web, books and have just joined the local REIA, but I'd love any thoughts you guys might have on this particular situation. Thanks so much for any advice you might be able to offer!

Hi everyone! My name is Jen Blume from Portland, OR. My husband and I are considering getting into multifamily RE investing. We currently have some farmland which is cash rented but, outside of that, no RE investing experience. I'm here to be a sponge and learn as much as I can from the BP community. I look forward to connecting with you.