If one or more units are vacant, the remaining units often don’t provide enough cash flow to cover expenses, making it harder to meet operating costs.Maintenance costs: A fourplex comes with four times the appliances, plumbing, HVAC systems, and other components to maintain, leading to significantly higher repair and maintenance expenses than single-family homes.If you want to see the detailed calculation, read this BP blog - More Units Doesn’t Mean More Money—Why a Single-Family Home Can Beat a Fourplex.Resale value: Multi-family properties have a limited buyer pool—mainly investors—who base their offers on CAP rates.

• Resources for Learning: We’re working on improving our deal analysis skills and would love recommendations for tools, books, courses, or calculators tailored for beginners.• Networking and Connections: Are there local Bay Area meetups or forums for new investors?

Not calculating maintenance expense could end up being a nightmare.I always estimate (using either the 50%, 1% or square footage rule) the annual maintenance / first year of maintenance fees for a ALL rental property.

A well qualified business broker or someone else experienced in those calculations (think someone with statistics/finance expertise) can easily do this.  

Highlights:* no prepay on 12 mo bridge* 6 months guaranteed interest on a 24 month bridgeThese are interest only loans and the DSCR calculation isn’t a factor in the lending decision.Compare the cost of your lower interest rate DSCR loan, including PPP versus what the bridge would cost at a higher interest rate and no or minimal PPP.PPP=pre payment penalty :)

That means making calculated numbers based decisions, not emotional ones.

The new appraised value will be used for the LTV calculation.

Upon sale, gains are taxed as long-term capital gains, calculated as the sale proceeds minus your adjusted basis (initial investment reduced by any return of capital).

How about realizing that when you use the current property taxes of a property you are buying to calculate your per door profit that the following year your taxes will reset to what YOU paid for the property and will likely significantly increase your tax expense - which can take you from a positive cash flow to a negative cash flow on a low cash flow property… now you are paying your tenants to live in the property every month out of your W2 income  hoping for an appreciation play until rents hopefully increase.I could go on and on.  

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.