Multi Family Property in Montpelier, Vermont

Multi-Family Property in Montpelier, Vermont

If I had it to do all over again, our first house would've been a multi-family property in Montpelier, such as a duplex or triplex.  We didn't go that route because, well, my wife and I were 30 when we bought our first house (gotta love grad school!) and we just wanted to not have wallmates or roommates.  We really liked our first house, but it could've been different.

Ok, so say you want to live in Montpelier.  If you're a first time buyer, you're probably not going to be in the house you buy for more than five or six years anyway, right?  You can get into a multi-family property in Montpelier for at or just above $200,000.  Depending on the condition of the property and whether the landlord pays for the heat, you can rent a 2 bedroom apartment out for $750-$1000. 

Run some numbers, and I'm happy to help you run them.  If you're thinking at all about buying and living in a multi-family, the numbers can be very appealing.  Because (ooh!  My writing profs at James Madison College at Michigan State are burning with that sentence starter!)...Because investors have to look long and hard to find a property that cash flows as a pure investment.  Buyers thinking of living there have an advantage.  They don't need to earn a certain cap rate, they just want to have someone else paying a chunk of the mortgage, heat, and taxes while they build equity.

Here's a real life example:  I know a woman who owned and lived in one unit of a four unit multi-family property in Montpelier.  The gross rents that she collected were around $2200 each month.  Now, that didn't fully cover her principal, interest, taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc.  But it came close, and after a few years of living more or less without having to figure in a mortgage payment into her budget, she decided she didn't want it anymore, sold it, and laughed all the way to the bank.

All I'm saying is there's a teensy crack between what investors want and owner-occupieds want, and a smart buyer can get in on something good even in Montpelier.