All Forum Posts by: L. Brown

Thanks, all. This confirms my thinking.

Hey BP,

I bought my first 2-family home (owner occupied) in August 2020 with a conventional loan. I am working on buying another multi-family (2-4 unit, owner occupied). I spoke to the lender I used to buy my current property about buying another property and he said the following:

"For a conventional loan the minimum down payment for a 4 family is 20% vs 15% for a 2 family. Since you already own a 2 family it will be very difficult to buy another multi family using a FHA loan since FHA has a guideline that does not allow the program to be used to acquire additional investment properties."

One of the reasons I went with the conventional loan is so that could keep the FHA in my back pocket if I wanted a home I wanted to put a lower down payment on. Is he correct that I can't use the FHA loan to buy my second investment property?

Great thoughts everyone, thanks!

Hey BP,

I currently own a duplex that I occupy. I’ve had the property for 1 1/2 years and all in all, it’s gone extremely well. As I think about my next move, I’d ultimately like to prepare to buy a small apartment complex (no more than 10 units) that would cash flow enough for me to pay the mortgage on my (yet to be purchased) single family dream home (not extravagant, but really nice).

Here’s my question: what are some of the major differences between buying and managing a duplex vs an apartment complex (I would hire a property manager)? Is going from a duplex to an apartment complex too big of a jump? Would getting something smaller (ie. 4-plex) be a better move to get my feet wet into commercial property? Thanks!

Yes, it's completely insane! I bought the house for $320k :-/

No, they didn't walk the property- well, they might have walked around the perimeter of the house without my knowledge, but they never came inside the house. I will ask the seller what renovations were done.

I'm still a newbie- can you explain why having it listed as a owner occupied matters? Does that change the property taxes? Also, what do you mean when you say "they have a cap that expires at each sale date"? You mean a cap in terms of the maximum amount of property taxes they can impose? (forgive my ignorance!)

Hello,
I'm new to real estate investing but took the leap and bought a duplex where I occupy one unit and rent out the other unit. While living in one unit of the property, the tenant pays $1500, and the PITI is $2100, so my monthly out of pocket is not much. My plan was to eventually move out and rent the unit I currently live in. This would give me a monthly cashflow of about $900. Then the trouble began...

I was recently notified by the town that my property taxes are doubling ($5,000 to $10,000)! When I asked the town about this, they said it was because there were a lot of renovations done to the house before I bought it and they are just getting around to assessing the new value of the house. This kills any cash flow I might have had, even if I rent out both units! I will obviously appeal the new assessment, but I'm not sure if I will win.

Has this happened to anyone before? Any suggestions on how I can still mangage some cash flow in the property? I almost feel like why bother to make improvements to the house if the tax assessor will come around, increase the taxes and make it so that you can't afford it!

Thanks, all. The boiler I have is rusted and needs to be replaced. If anyone has referrals for a good company, please share. I am an amateur and don't know the first thing about buying a boiler.

@George W. I’m not referring to the water heater. I’m using boiler to mean the thing that sends steam to the radiators.

@Megan Brooks thanks!

@Megan Brooks I'm in Fort Lee, Northern NJ