Reader Question: “Should I Buy This Triplex?” (A Real Life Case Study)

by Brandon

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Triplex

Today I received a private message from a BiggerPockets colleague (we’ll call him Jake) that asked a very good question about a potential property he was looking at. Rather than try to summarize, let me just show you the message:

Rental Property

I wrote out a rather lengthy response and then decided this would make a really good discussion here on the blog. So follow along with me as I analyze this potential property and show you how I look at something like this.

The Potential Rental Property Deal

Allow me to quickly sum up everything in the above question, just so we are all on the same page.

  • Jake owns a home already, with a mortgage payment of $734 per month. His home would rent for $900.
  • Jake is considering a Triplex that just came on the market in a good area
  • The triplex consists of a main house with two basement apartments.
  • The current asking price of the property is $250,000, but Jake is hoping to pay $210,000.
  •  Jake would move to the triplex, live in the main house, and rent his former house and the basement apartments.

So Jake’s wanted to know my thoughts. Would I do it?

Honestly, at first, I thought “Seems decent.”

HOWEVER.

Then I dug into the numbers.

(click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

About Brandon

has written 199 Awesome posts in this blog.

Brandon Turner (G+) is the BiggerPockets.com Senior Editor and Community Director and owner of RealEstateInYourTwenties.com. He is also an Active Real Estate Investor (Flips, Apartments, and Buy-and-Hold), Entrepreneur, World Traveler, Third-Person Speaker, and Husband. Come hang out with him on Twitter!

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.

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