I am under the process of evaluating a few properties lately for my first purchase here in the US of A.
Unlike where I lived, it seems here we have to incorporate more taxes and maintenace provisions and mostly vacancies as well that where I am from. Maintenance where I am from is usually not much accounted for especially since everything is concrete and bricks or roof tiles, there arent that many expensive items to foresee. Also taxes are low (usually less 100 usd per year) and vacancies I dont think for the past 15 years we ever had in my family more than 1 week turnover - we live in a high demand area.
Anyhow, I am trying to adventure myself here in the US. I want to first go local close to where I currently live which is in Central PA.
I have so far 2 properties that raised my interest.
The first one, is a half double - I would be only purchasing one of the units, and is in a good school district. The neighboorhood block I would say is not the prettiest in town nor the better one but is not a shady neighboorhood at all. I would put it in "normal" category. It already has a long term tenant - I was able to look and the tenant has been there for the past 4-5 years always with rent on time.
My question is why would hte owner be selling but there can be a plethora of reasons. With a quick Facebook search, I was able to see the person lives on the West Coast so it may be a reason why they are selling - more investigation needs to be done.
If I had done my math right, and considering all variables account for (taxes, insurance, maintenance, property manager and so forth - please let me know if I havent been conservative at all and numbers need revised) the property does cash flow.
On the other spectrum I have a 2 unit duplex which would bring 1000 USD gross, and according to calculations it also cash flows, however the neighboorhood is not as nice and is in a town about 10 miles away which is not as nice as mine.
The migration flux is stable for the past years (population has been stable) and there are not a lot of super high paying jobs around. Owning is cheap aroound (a 1500 sq ft house costs around 170k or so in a nice area).
Both areas are reaping benefits of a plant conversion from Coal to Natural Gas. It started recently so a plant that was shut down the past decade has been reactivated into NG plant and a lot of activity has been going around from the Central PA regions of shale gas.
Considering this, and if you had to opt between the two what do you think it seems to be a better option, considering the 2nd option is in whats considered a rougher town. Also worth considering, the first property has hit the market around 1-2 weeks while the 2nd property has been in the market for 1 year which begs the question again what may be wrong with it. I need to go to the properties, which will happen this week.
Are my calcs OK?