I have a little dilema and need some advice. I am new here so thanks for your time in advance.
My boyfriend and I are investing in our first real estate property very soon. We are looking back and forth at two specific properties right now, one condo one townhouse. We can afford them both as they are both short sale properties and well priced. The condo is around 50K (max 70K) and is a perfect rental for either college or working roommates with a double master set up, ground floor with all the perks etc…
These are very nice condo’s with no large HOA’s or restrictive rules about renters etc…they were old apartments that were completely gutted and redone at top dollar into luxury condo’s so price wise it is a steal and will produce around 600+ a month in positive cash flow as our first investment if renting it out goes smoothly (we are not assuming it will go smoothly and can afford to hold it vacant permenantly if we must). The ROI on the property assuming we buy it as an investment property instead of first time home buyers is approximately 50% on a downpayment of 10,000.
All the condo’s in this complex listed in the last 3-5 months have sold or rented within 30 days (had my real estate agent verify this). We are not flippers we are interested in renting the property for at least 1 year. Possible 1031 after that. We will be rellocating the title into an LLC no matter what property we buy shortly after sale, hopefully within the first 6 weeks (LLC is in the process of being formed).
After speaking with our real estate agent who is a solid investor he said the condo would be his first choice the townhome second (like I said we can afford both staggered about three months apart). After speaking with our mortgage broker who was also a solid investor in rentals turned flipper in another part of our state, he advised us to run as far away as possible from a condo.
Now we are just confused…looking at the numbers (yes we were both hesitant on the condo in the first place) everything makes sense that this is good. What is the main reason to stay away from this (condo association issues across the country, financing issues?) We do not want to get involved in something that in the long run will turn out to be a horrible investment. We are trying to choose our best option first to buy and then either buy the second or scrap the second and find another property to invest into.
We have about a week to figure this out…any advice would be helpful.