All Forum Posts by: Michael K Gallagher

Hey @Shawn Phillips, I don't have a statistically calculated number, my agent @Rene Lanthron who found the duplex for me probably could be more helpful in that area if you are looking for actual data points, comps and statistical trends.

However, we watch the market pretty closely, and we are seeing some properties listed currently that are pushing the price per square foot way up!  Now if they sell for the list price or not we are yet to see... but just as an example, my duplex works out to just about $131/sf and their are several houses in the area that are trying to push the $165-$190 per sf mark.  Now these are single family's, so the appraisal is a bit different as I understand it.  But it does give some pretty substantial data and ammunition when going through an appraisal.

My speculation is because areas like Olde Town East, Bexley, and Franklin Park that immediately boarder the South of Main area are also appreciating quite rapidly, so we are getting that "trendy/hipster adjacent" push.  But it isn't so high yet that its unattainable price wise.  So its a pretty sweet little section of the east side of Columbus. 

1 random though regarding FHA... just be upfront with your lender about doing FHA and wanting to do a multi family, there were some pretty crazy hick-ups we came across with the underwriting and the zoning from the city and how its changed in these areas since the houses were built. So just know that FHA is a couple more hoops to jump through but if you stay on top of things and keep open communication with your lender they shouldn't derail things too much. And obviously every underwriter is different...so you might also just get a better more reasonable underwriter than I had...which I hope you do. but feel free to reach out if you want to talk more specifics or have any specific questions about the area/process.

Cheers!
  

@Shawn Phillips I'm currently doing an FHA Duplex house hack in Columbus OH. We are in South Of Main, bought it completely flipped and redone for $318K, we get $1250 rent for the other side, so my "share", if you want to call it that, of the mortgage is $650 a month, even with a $200 a month PMI, this still made my cost of living way less than the $1350 mortgage I was paying out in the burbs. So my point is, don't be put off by the PMI, if the numbers work for your situation go for it. You can always refi out to conventional later on.

We got an appraisal of $340K a year later, which was November 2019. So roughly a 7% appreciation in a year...seemed pretty decent to me.   

And another huge plus for Cbus at the moment is that most areas just outside of downtown that are "up and coming" are coming with 10 year full tax abatements...so we are talking like $900, maybe less, a year in property taxes.  So for me that again was a huge selling point as I was paying almost $4K a year in Dublin.    

looks amazing!. congrats on the house hack!

@Andre Fierro There's no use playing the "what if game" or the "BCD" game.  Somewhere in this experience you learned something, and will implement things to not let it happen again.  Concentrate on those learnings and best practices you picked up to get you through the frustration.   

As far as realtors I'll send you some info via PM as they don't let you post links in the forums.  But the Realtors name is Ray Brown, he is very investor friendly as he used to do condo development here in Columbus before re-locating down to FL.  He's done a couple live in flips, and town house developments so  I'm sure he'd be a good resource for you in FL.  

Hope you get that first deal sooner rather than later!

@Matthew Cassidy we bought it previously flipped, we were on a very tight timeline having already been in contract on our main residence... but from my understanding the 203K is a nice option for rehabs.  From what I know about them there are many more hurdles to jump through as a contractor and on the "approval" side of things, but the people who talk favorably about them usually mention that: "it's guaranteed money" for the contractor, so it tends to attract the best of the best from a quality standpoint but the work is a premium...again have never done it myself, just what I found when I was reading about them.   

@Matthew Cassidy When I went through my loan process with my duplex I was told that you have to put 20% down on a multi family to get conventional financing, you don't have an option for a 5% or lower down payment as an owner occupant unless its a Single Family. So we ended up going FHA. Now yes it's a higher monthly payment, and yes their will be PMI and the process is a bigger pain in the but, but FHA would let you only put 3.5% down, and would let you keep more cash for reserves and for repairs and improvements. And just my opinion, but especially in these times I'd rather have more cash handy if I can, only if the numbers make sense from a month to month standpoint though.
 

@Ryan Mainwaring congrats on the deal!  looks fantastic. We are in South of Main, just over 70 from from you, so very glad to see this happening in our backyard.  Do you have any idea of what you are trying to get for rent in the area?  I'm finding nicer fixed up properties in SOMA to be scarce so we are somewhat setting the rents ourselves at the moment. Would be curious to know what you are finding in your area.

@Dave E. I wouldn't say that what you have is a real problem...unless its just a personal desire that you want her to be interested in things you are passionate about.  My wife and I have a similar relationship, where I am the one passionate about investing, and about crunching numbers all that...but I'm lucky in that she loves the high level strategy.  So she's into looking for areas, looking at specific houses, designs that kind of thing.  She could care less about the numbers, until we find a potential deal, and then she's just going to ask me to explain the bottom line to her, the risk that kind of think.  Perhaps theres an issue with us getting financing, or something to that effect, then she's interested.  But on a day to day basis, she couldn't care less and it works.

I'd say that if you want her to be more interested don't focus so much on the REI portion of it, focus on the financial freedom and long term goals of it. I think if you can both agree and align on a long term view, goals, that kind of thing, then she will become more interested in what the specific small things you are doing to get you both to those goals. SO again she may not give a rats behind what a specific deal looks like, but she might want to talk about specific cashflow, or the location of that property, that kind of thing. At the end of the day as long as you are both invested in the long term goal and have clarity from that, I think you'll both enjoy the ride.

@Jonathan Ramos congrats on the deal!  it looks great!  Glad to see success in the 603, I grew up in Enfield NH (exit 17 off I89) and relocated to OH for college, so very glad to see that there are still good deals to be had back home.  Congrats again!

@Johnson Michael fantastic to hear!  I too started by listening to the podcast, and finally made the leap into investing by selling my house in the burbs and moving downtown Columbus OH to House hack and Duplex...and I've never looked back.  Did that in October of 2018.  I have been fascinated recently with the "business" of being a real-estate agent, and have been helping my agent look at, analyze and focus on what would be best to scale her business.  I'm sure you've already read it, but if you haven't read "the millionaire real-estate agent" or "the one thing" they are must reads, especially if you are in the Keller Williams family!  I'm not even an agent, but I have a small (just me) consulting company and all of the principles in those books sound true in my daily work life as well.  

I'm a Process Engineer by experience, did many years in an automotive supplier plant, so I like to think I have the eye and mind for breaking things down, finding the root of the issues, and building systems, so anytime you want to talk shop, or just shoot the bull I'm always down!  

Looking forward to hearing about your success on here in the future!

Cheers,