Ummm…
Are you trying to say 200/10 = 10?
Yeah, I’m not going to build…for reasons previously stated.
I’m not engaged (yet), I’m assuming big gulp in the next year I will be.
(Assuming that you won’t change your mind about a double in the city…) The double in Kenmore/Ton is my vote. However, the only way that the $700 in rent from one unit will cover the mortgage will be if you put down 15-20% like you mentioned. If you can get it with putting 3.5% for an FHA, that’s my vote. Money wont be much/any cheaper than it is now. Take advantage of it.
Personally, I stayed away from Kenmore/North Tonwanda because the taxes there make it hard to cash flow properties with less money down. You will be hard pressed to get the combination of good rents/decent tenants and neighbors/and cheap houses that you can find in North Buffalo ANYWHERE in Western New York. My tenants are AMAZING at my place. As long as your picky…you can find good tenants for any well maintained/semi-updated place.
Let me know if you want to elaborate any more on anything.
no figure 9 grand x 2 units, plus him throwing in a little 20kx10=200
I vote option two. You can pick up the double later when you can look at it from strictly an income perspective and you don’t have to live in it. In the meantime rent a couple rooms to people you trust won’t wreck the place and have the money, and you wouldn’t mind living with. Pick off a couple people from the lofts possibly. The doubles market is relatively so-so right now whereas high-end singles have deals galore. Unless you pick a real roach you’ll have $100k+ in equity in 10 years.
This way, if anything happens and you get engaged/married, the house is yours. You might let her live in it, but it would not be a marital asset.
Math doesn’t add up. “I have enough for 15-20% down” “$125k” “house account with a stupid amount of money in it”
But on a serious note.
Real estate in Buffalo always amazes me, always set up for owner/landlord setups.
Don’t buy a house, anticipating the rental income with help pay the mortgage (doesn’t sound like you are). Not worth the risk.
Having a rental, the higher end the better. I would far rather err on the side of the rent not covering the mortgage, than having scum bags trash the place and have to deal with trying to evict them after the don’t pay the rent. There are never any guarantees, but renting to young professionals is going to net you a lot better stability than 5 college kids. I think there are lots of great opportunities to rent in BLo from what I’ve seen, so I’d suggest going that route, assuming you can find something good, good price, good draw, etc. That sets you up well if you end up only living there a few years, because then you can just rent both units, and move on to the next house, whatever it may be.
FUCK renting rooms (IMHO)
Don’t know where you are getting your math on where the will/won’t make money tradeoff hits … :shrug: There are lots of people that have experience doing this, but you don’t really sound like you want to listen all that much.
My cousin just bought a sidebyside in williamsville or clarence, he is living in the one side, and is renting out the other to someone he works with or something. (pretty much guaranteed rent, and you know the person). He just got married though and plans to move out in a few years, by then it will most likely be paid off.
i am pretty sure that rent pays for close to 100% of the mortgage, and that depends on obv how much you want to put down. he’s set up so he can make the payments of the mortgage himself, and the renter, so he can basically pay more than double per month of what the mortgage is if he wants to pay it off.
i would go with option 1, out of the 2. it seems the way to go now, considering your age and situation
I don’t have any personal experience renting but I always wondered if you can make money off it. After you factor in increased insurance, taxes and interest do you make money?
My one uncle owned about 20 rental units and ended up selling them all. He isn’t super baller or anything.
I have friends who are slum lords and it makes them a little bit of money. At least at first…
The mortgage is the balloon type, where the first few years are cheap and then you have a huge balloon payment at the end. The plan is to dump the house before you have to pay that. In the meantime, you rent to the people who are Section 8. The government basically pays you whatever the rent is (within reason), so your money is gauranteed each month.
Honestly, the idea that your first home would be the one you live in forever is laughable. First-time homebuyers never know what they REALLY want long-term (especially that long) on the first try. I know you will retort with “Oh I assure you I know blah blah blah…”, but you likely really don’t.
Why don’t get you just get something near Xeons/my old house?
Those go for 160-200 and those houses sell quick people love the school district…
Worry about building a house down the line.
What is she turning 18 soon or something?
lol
Tell me where these nice areas of the city are? Sure there are PATCHES of a few streets here and there, but it is on a decline everywhere you look. I deliver all over the place in Buffalo, Tonawanda, Kenmore, Williamsville, Amherst, etc, etc. In Buffalo you can have $400,000 homes on one street, and 1 street over is a metro bus route with low income housing. It’s only a matter of time before one of those beautiful homes gets converted into a multiple unit and there goes the neighborhood. Go down Woodbridge avenue and look at the beautiful homes there. All are 5+bdr huge homes, then go one street over and take a look at Huntington ave. The exact same architecture, but a lot of them are converted to doubles. In the summer the grass is a foot tall in some of them.
I personally made the decision to buy a nice, newer, townhouse in a prime location as a rental. I’m fine if it rents out to only break even at the end of the month while somebody else builds my equity.
I made this decision based on the fact that i will not live in buffalo for very long and that i wanted to take advantage of very low interest rates.
I say the rental just for the fact that you can put yourself in a situation to continue to save and THEN buy a nice place. By waiting a couple years, you will then own a rental and a nice home. my $.02
Real estate in the desirable sections of the city is definitely appreciating not declining.
OK, tell me where exactly? Give me a neighborhood or a street. Not doubting you, I just haven’t seen anything myself, and i’ve been all over the place there.
I bought my first duplex as my starter home for the reason that I was 26, single, and it made much more sense to me to have renters pay a majority of the mortgage/escrow. I basically lived for a couple hundred dollars per month. 2 years later I bought another house up the street from me and ended up living for free, all mortgage, utilities paid for. That allowed me to bank A LOT of money, I saved it all, and that gave me the opportunity to buy my single family home a year later, this past November. I was able to put $30K down on it and have a lot left over in the bank for other things that come up (like the roof I just put on the house).
My suggestion is to get a duplex, get respectable tenants (usually couples with a college degree), and enjoy it for a few years and BANK all of your money for your “dream” home later on.
Elmwood area for one.
I wish I had been as smart as you. Seriously. I bought my first house when I was 23. If I had bought a duplex and kept the yard and driveway for myself rather than just buying a big single family home I would have had a similar quality of life but be way better off financially. I’m already upgrading to my second house but if I had done that I would have had a bunch more money to put down and/or had a lot more toys over the last 5 years. Or maybe have bought a nicer house this time. Oh well, in my next life I’ll do it smarter.