Duplex Depot - Duplex and Multi-Family Real Estate

Start your real estate investing career out early by buying a duplex!

February 27th, 2009 Jacquie Cliff - Real Estate Agent and Loan Officer

Back in August of last year I did a post on ‘Why your first home should be a duplex’ and after reading an article on BawldGuy Talking I wanted to come back and touch on it once again.  With the still low rates we are looking at, it makes sense for anyone thinking of buying a home and wanting to get into real estate investing to purchase a multi-family property.

Lets look at a current example pulled from the MLS, a 4-plex in Lynnwood, listing at $435,000.  Assuming that we don’t even try and negotiate the price down (and I would) it would break down like this:

5% Down Payment – $21,750

Payment at 5.5% Interest – $2,436

A bit steep for a lot of people out there right now.  BUT!  Lets not forget the other tenants in the building in our lovely Lynnwood 4-plex.  They are each kicking in about $750 a month for their units for a total of $2250, and bringing or monthly cash flow down to a staggering $186!  Now I know I didn’t include the taxes, insurance and other expenses, but even with those I am sure you can see that living in a portion of a property and renting out the other units is a GREAT way to get started in real estate investing, while saving some money on your own housing to boot

I will say that not everyone is cut out to manage their own property.  For those people that are forward thinking enough to forego buying a single family residence, and buy themselves an apartment of their own (buy way of purchasing a multi-family property and living in one unit)  there is definitely some big benefits.

Consider the just the difference between the appreciation on a $235,000 condo, a typical purchase for first time home buyers and our example duplex.  At a very conservative 3% appreciation over 5 years, the condo would have appreciated to about $272,500.  A $37,500 gain which isn’t bad.  The 4-plex on the other hand would have grown to about $504,250, a gain of $69,250!  There are of course the side benefits of any cash flow, tax savings and so on.  Plus you have the ability to increase the value of your rental property even further by improving the property and raising rents!

It is my sincere hope that if you are considering buying a home, and have a spark of desire for real estate investing, that you look to living in your first multi-family property.  The advantages are definitely there, and it can act as a gateway to your real estate empire!

Jacquie Cliff – The Amazon Negotiator
Let me lead you through the Real Estate Jungle!

Real Estate Agent, Loan Officer and Real Estate Investor serving:
Lynnwood, Bothell, Mill Creek, Seattle, Bellevue, Marysville, Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds, Everett, Snohomish, Kirkland and the surrounding areas!

Call me with any of your real estate questions at 425-773-3149 or email me at Jacquie@jacquiecliff.com anytime!

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Duplex and Multi-Family Property Update for Everett & Lynnwood

February 21st, 2009 Jacquie Cliff - Real Estate Agent and Loan Officer

Winter is quickly fading and I expect we will see more properties coming onto the market as the grass starts to green up.  Here is a quick update on the state of the duplex and multi-family market in Everett and Lynnwood using the MLS information.

Everett Multi-Family Property Statistics

The sold figures for 3-5 unit multi-family properties in Everett were skewed slightly by the fact that there have only been 2 sold in the past 90 days, one of which was a tri-plex that closed at $199,900.  I suspect that it needed some work.  Listings that say ‘Needs TLC’ and ‘Buyer to waive form 17′ are usually in pretty rough shape or there are serious worries. 

Lynnwood Multi-Family Property Statistics

Prices in Lynnwood for duplex and multi-family properties is higher as you can see, with the age and condition of several of the Everett properties pulling the prices down.  One other thing to note is that there are 42 active duplex properties in Everett, and only 8 currently on the market in Lynnwood.

What I am seeing is that for investors with backing, there are some good deals to be made.  The one duplex sale that did happen in the last 90 days was only on the market 19 days and dropped from an initial price of $425,000 to a final selling price of $370,000.  At that price it most likely won’t break even if it is financed, unless of course there was a sizeable down payment.

If you are shopping in this area for a duplex or small multi-family property, my suggestion is to have your financing ready, and make some offers!  The market isn’t moving very fast, which means sellers need to compete if they want to sell.

When you are ready to get out there and start making some offers, give me a call at 425-773-3149 or send me an email at Jacquie@JacquieCliff.com and I will try not to have too good of a time beating up the sellers (proverbially) for you.  Of course if you are looking in areas other than Lynnwood and Everett for multi-family investments, I can take care of you there as well.  If you need and example, just check out my road trip to Aberdeen to look at a bunch of multi-family properties (which had positive cash flow!)

Posted in Everett, Lynnwood, Statistics | No Comments »