Real Estate Investment Insights
Off-market means the building is not on the local listing service that day. It does not mean the price is a discount. Seven ways to hear about buildings, and what to verify before a lead becomes an offer.
Write the screening standard before the first showing, apply it in the same order to every complete application, and follow fair-housing and credit-reporting rules when you decide.
Gross rent multiplier is price divided by annual gross rent. Use it to sort similar buildings, then replace it with expenses, vacancy, and a loan you were actually quoted.
After an offer is accepted, fifty checks replace the listing with leases, inspections, title, hazard, and a loan estimate. Each one should change the price, the terms, or a walk-away.
Self-managing keeps the management fee and spends your nights. Hiring buys that work back. Either way, the cost belongs in the operating statement before you close.
The 1% rule compares monthly rent with price. It is a way to sort a list of listings, not an appraisal and not a reason to buy or to walk away.
DSCR loans qualify a rental largely on the property's income versus the payment. The ratio is whatever that lender counts, not one federal program with one cutoff.
Cap rate is net operating income divided by price. The ratio is only as honest as the income and expenses you can document, and it ignores your loan on purpose.
House hacking means you live in part of a small property and rent the rest, usually so you can use owner-occupant financing. The rent can lower what you pay to live there. It does not make the building free.