Although the suburbs may see a small but steady amount of positive equity growth, there is nothing hot and exciting happening in the suburbs to yield any high returns.

First decide the area(s) of interest to you as an investor - both geographically and the type of investment (SFR, small / large multi, storage, etc).

We think this will create more value than dressing up the existing small master bath and keeping the 4th bedroom.  

Would also love to add a small ADU.

Hi Tax masters,I have a question about the county mortgage tax when purchasing a property.I'm quoting a mortgage from 3 lenders for a small multi-family in Bushwick/Ridgewood area (Brooklyn NY), and one of them estimated the county mortgage tax in their quote when the other 2 didn't.If anyone has some knowledges to share with this, I would appreciate it.

The 10% different seems small but it can make the difference between getting foreclosed or not.

They're all going to use NOI/PITI, but you'll experience a range of DSCR requirements which will directly affect your max LTV and you'll also experience a range of rates.

The lower the DP, the less you need to recover, and the faster you should be able to recover it.Equity's main role, is to accumulate through appreciation (not paydown...to slow, and too small),...and then cash out to move forward into larger property value. 

Ideally I'd like to buy something with a few acres to build an art studio for multi media work, gallery and perhaps a few small cabins for people to visit with us. 

Once that's done I won't stop but at least I can look at small multi families before looking at bigger unit buildings.