All Forum Posts by: John Armando

Hello BP,

I live just outside of Boston and am interested in purchasing a short term rental property in the North Conway area (for those not from New England), North Conway is a popular destination, as it is within 30 minutes of 3 large skiing mountains, close to summer hiking, as well as family attractions such as Storyland and Santa's village. In addition the town is fairly well populated, thus there are a number of restaurants, shops, etc. 

I have a pretty well built Excel calculator I use for valuing traditional long term multi-family rentals, but am not sure the best way for determining estimated rental income for a short term rental property, which would be listed on something like VRBO or AirBNB. 

My question is, how can i determine my expected annual and monthly income for a rental property accounting for vacancy, weekend vs. weeklong rentals, peak vs. off-season rates, etc. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome Jorge and thank you for serving our Country. 

NB looks to be a promising place for investment, my fiancee and I both grew up in Dartmouth and are looking to purchase multi-families in the area as well. 

To those from the NB area, does anyone know the estimated cap rate? From my analysis I'm guessing somewhere in the 3.5-4.5% range? Is this reasonable?

Good to see some NB/Dartmouth area locals. My fiancee and I are from the area as well, although we live outside Boston currently. We are looking to purchase 2 multi-families in the next 3 years, and up to 10 over the next 10 years. 

I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts are on rental rates in NB for a 3 bdroom, updated. A lot of the rentals I see on craigslist are of lower quality and seem to be asking between $800-1200, does that seem reasonable? 

Also what is the market for more updated apartments, is the average income level in NB able to support a $1000/month rental.

Hey @Michael Cutting, awesome to read your post. My fiancee and I are actually thinking about the same thing. We live just outside of Boston and work in the city currently, but we both grew up in South Dartmouth, and know the NB/Dartmouth area very well. After looking to get started in REI in the Boston area, we've realized the competition for starting investors in Boston seems too competitive and challenging to find good properties that generate passive income, but in NB it seems much more feasible. Plenty of family and friends have done investing in the area and own several multi-families in NB. From what I've gathered the biggest issue in NB is finding good tenants!! It'd be great to grab a coffee sometime and chat. We are in a similar boat and trying to absorb as much as possible, and BP is a fantastic resource!

Thanks for the comments Mike and Bill. 

Bill, is there a time limit in which it would be considered a hold vs. a flip? ie., so if we hold for 3 years, and then decide to sell would it qualify? Also, if we end up renting, then sell, from my understanding that would qualify as well? 

Mike,

I think my question with analyzing a live in flip is, how do we incorporate the years we live in the flip in our calculations? Ie. in the Rental property calculator, do I add our current rental rate to the annual income for the new property if we own?

As a follow-up I estimate the ARV to be about $415,000. Taxes are ~$4000. We currently pay $1300 in our rental, so would want to include that in the analysis.

Hello,

I am a new investor, and my fiancee and I are looking to do a Flip-in. We both work in Boston and live in a nearby suburb just south of the city within walking distance to the primary subway line (30min. door-to-door commute). We plan to live in the area for another 3-4 years before moving to a further away suburb, and would like to start investing in real-estate on the side of our full-time jobs. We think a flip-in may be our best option as we will have a longer time-line for re-hab. We hope to continue renting the property after moving out and using some of the equity to help with a down-payment for our next property. Alternatively, if the market has appreciated well enough selling out and using the profits via a 1031 exchange for our next property or permanent home. 

Here are the specs for the potential properties:

List price: $393,000 (I think similar properties are selling closer to $250-260/sqft. based on the work needed)

Sqft.: 1381 

Beds: 3

Baths:1 (we think we would want to eventually put in a half bath if possible)

Location: 10 min. to train station, 1 block from golf course, in a family type neighborhood, corner lot

House: Cape, with fireplace, single car garage, built in 1925. 

Work needed: new garage door, paint throughout, exterior is fine, new drywall (40sqft), light fixtures, hardwood flooring (1 room, approx 198 sqft), new bath floor tile + vanity + bath/shower combo, landscaping. 

Reach updates: install new 0.5 bath, install granite in kitchen, update appliances, re-tile kitchen floor (~100 sqft), add kitchen backsplash, paint exterior

We would do as much work as possible ourselves, but for bigger projects (electrical, plumbing, major tile) we'd look to hire. 

I estimate based on craigslist adds we could rent the property for $2200 right now, but definitely with the improvements. The area has a growth rate of 6.7% in rentals over the last year. 

What is the best way to assess a flip-in with a 3 year owner occupied timeline?

Thanks for the advice Matt. We actually grew up in Dartmouth, so know the SouthCoast very well. That is where we plan to reside long-term and can't think of a better place. Hopefully be doing some REI that way in the future.

My Fiancee and I are new to real estate investing but would like to jump in. But first, we'd like to learn as much as possible and BP seems like the place to be! We reside just outside of Boston and work in the city both with secure stable jobs. We currently rent a 1 bed 1 bath apartment but are hoping to start with a flip-in to live in for 3-4 years before moving into a more permanent single family home in SouthCoast Massachusetts. We hope to sell if we can obtain an acceptable return on investment or rent to gain some initial cash-flow.  We hope this will help propel us into more investment opportunities to allow for either early retirement or to allow us financial freedom to live comfortable on a single full-time income.