All Forum Posts by: Jim Stanton

My better half and I are looking at a two family for $52,000. We estimate about $40,000 in repairs. Once completed we can refi about $80,000 as it's ARV is $100,000. The monthly cash flow using the BP Calculator says $351 positive cash flow and that's being very conservative. Is this a good return on our $12,000 and 120 hours of our own labor? What do people out there think?

Hello and Welcome

It seems to me that Fall River may very well be the next mill city in MA to see a big resurgence.

Everything in Taunton right now is a bidding war and Fall River is the next city out.  

Don't ever sell it and it won't ever matter.

My fiancee and I have decided to move from the south shore to Taunton as my daughter lives there with her mother and I want to be closer to her.  We're buying AT LEAST a two family so that when we move south in five years it will still cash flow positively.

It seems to me that you've bought it cheap enough and you're paying down the mortgage, that it's a great investment.  Do the rest of it over as you have already.  You know the work has been done right so it should give you years of relatively easy, maintainence free flow.  Of course this depends on your landlording skills.  Even if you decided to sell later, an astute investor will find a way to make the deal happen as they'll see the value in the work you've done.

Good Luck!!!!!!

Thanks for the replies.  As I am also looking for a rental to fall back on incase we don't find a place to purchase before our moving deadline, it's crazy what the rents are all over the south shore and southeastern MA.

Unfortunately, the home inspection didn't go as well as we'd hoped and the house needs structural repairs.  I'm more than willing to undertake these as well as some other expensive repairs but as I'm estimating them to be in the $50,000 plus range I doubt the sellers will be willing to come down to our price considering all the offers they received.  I'm just glad I have the guy I have as his $650 just saved me a whole lot more!  We're still going to counter and see where it all goes but to be honest if I have to do and or contract out that much work I'm not going to do it to break even.  I have to get some sweat equity out of the deal as well

Thanks again for the suggestions!!!!

Sorry. TAW is Tenant At Will so she doen't have a lease.

The Seller isn't willing to be involved at all with this tenant whatsoever.  In fact, the reason we got our offer accepted despite being $20,000 less than the highest was because we were second highest, $15,000 over asking AND we were willing to deal with the tenant.

Good Evening To All,

My Fiancee and I are in the process of buying a two family as owner occupied. We have to decide what to do about the current, long term, existing tenant. We sign the P&S Monday provided tomorrows inspection goes as we expect and we have a closing date of on or before June 21. I'm hoping to get some good advice here on BP

The property is a two family with three levels.  First floor is a 3 bedroom, currently unoccupied.  It needs paint, floors refinished and a little updating but nothing major.  Second floor is also 3 bedroom, needing about the same as first floor in regards to work.  This unit is occupied by long term TAW tenant who is paying $650 per month.  According to the listing agent she claims to be willing and able to go up to $1000 per month to stay.  That sounds good except current rents are more in the $1400 a month range.  More importantly we want the second floor tenant out so we can move into the second floor and combine it with the third floor level which is currently a walk up attic.  This third floor cannot be legally turned into a third unit per the city but it will give us two floors for our unit and the room to add a second bathroom as well as expand other rooms.  

I'd REALLY like to have her out by the end of June so we could move into the second floor directly from our current residence but that is short notice.  We believe Massachusetts only requires a 30 notice for TAW but we're not sure.  We've also thought about offering her say $2000 to help assist her move provided she's out by the end of June.  If she's out and we can move directly to the second floor the plan is to quickly update and rent ready the first floor and have a new tenant in by August 1st then we can focus on our unit.

Any constructive advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Hey Charlie,

Thanks for the advice. I have my MA Salespersons license and MLS access so I've seen the properies you mentioned. I still just don't see any real cash flow from any of them.

I've looked in Middleboro, Taunton and even Fall River but just not seeing anything. I think that the MLS listings are just too high and will have to start doing some direct marketing in order to get something more wholesale than retail.

Interest rates are creeping up and prices for first time buyers are getting too crazy.  I saw this movie before back in the mid 2000's and we all know how that turned out.

Anyone else care to share their thoughts on MA investing?  Preferably more south of Boston.

Thanks!

Hey All MA Biggerpockets Fans!

This is a very interesting thread.  With real estate being so hot in MA it's not surprising that it's still going.

I live in Marshfield where there are virtually NO multi-families on the market like EVER!  My Fiancee and I would love to house hack something here, especially where daughter is a Freshman at MHS.  Single family prices are soaring with no end in sight and we want to be married to each other, not a house.  We sold out single family flip here in Jan of 2017 as I figured better to sell to early than trying to sell too late.  We made money on it which was great but can't find anything worth buying.  Not in Marshfield anyway.  We may have to consider leaving if things continue as they are.

My question for everyone here is where people think the best multi investments are.  I saw Braintree and Weymouth but I don't see the rents covering the nut.  I don't see that hardly anywhere.  Is it just me?  I know that $50,000 isn't a ton of money but I would have thought it would get me into something, somewhere that makes some return.  My Fiancee and I both have full time jobs so we'd prefer not to have to buy vacant dumps that need tons of work.  Places that are currently rented but need updating are fine but some of the places we've looked at are complete rehabs.

Love to hear what thoughts on any of this are.

Thanks!

Jim

Hey Dawn,

My Fiancee and I looked into this and on the surface it seemed like a great way to get an education in real estate but after digging a little further we found that the people in our area, greater Boston, were really only making money at getting more people to sign up and very few were making money on actual deals.  Too bad as the people we met were great, just not great at real estate which is what we were looking for.

Hello Brian and everyone here at BP

I know this is an older thread but as a newbie at BP I'm just surfing around reading different articles.  I too have a full time job that sometimes is 50-60 hours a week with OT that is kind of mandatory but it allows me to qualify for mortgages and pay all the other bills.  I'm keeping my flip profits for growing my real estate deals.  I'm waiting to close on my third flip by the end of the month and starting to look for the next one and one of my flips was just a whole sale deal. 

My first flip was mostly cosmetic but despite my best efforts I needed to bring in professionals to get it done as it was just too much for me.  I then told my fiance that if I planned on doing any of the work on the next one myself to shoot me.  She agreed until our first contractor on the second flip had to be fired, leaving me to do the painting, doors install and finish trim myself.  While I'm most likely faster and better than most DIYers I'm certainly not a pro but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.  Fortunately as well, the second flip was a much smaller house.

I must agree with most people here that you're better off paying someone else to do the work but also, like you, I enjoy doing SOME of the work.  Funny, the contractors I've worked with all say they hate to paint but for some silly reason I enjoy it.  Plus, no one is as anal about painting as I am as my fiancé has told me numerous times.  Even my painting guy has told me his crew thinks I'm pretty good and he's offered me a job.  Thanks but no.

I think if you are content with your situation and like doing some of the work then you should continue to do it.  Just know that it's a trade off of your time that could be spent chasing deals.  Sometimes though, perhaps like me, you don't want to be chasing deals.  You just want to put on some tunes, be left alone and do your best job painting, tiling or whatever.