I can show you a bunch, the smaller ones and the cheaper ones cash flow better. The rental market is fairly strong, until my recent purchase I was a renter. A 100k condo rents for $1100-$1200, a 160k townhouse with a 2 car garage rents for $1500 and a 200k sfr rents for $1600-$1700. A 300k sfr rents for $1800-$2000. So the rent multiplier goes up as the price goes up. It’s not a rule of thumb everywhere, but here, condos flow better than sfr’s and larger sfr’s are not as good as the smaller one.
Here’s and example of a 100k 2/2 that rents for just over a grand
In the listing they give the downpayment as $3500, P&I is $475, taxes are $280 and hoa is $200, so it’s 900 a month to own and 1100-1200 a month to rent. The taxes are actually lower than that because it was purchased in 05 for 279k (so it’s 2/3 off right now) and the taxes were likely readjusted mid year. The 3k for last year taxes is averaged from two different values so using past taxes can be misleading. I think the taxes are 1% plus 1k, so if you paid sub 100k taxes might me $180 or less. That’s a couple hundred cash flow from day one, low effort and since it’s newer, lower liklihood of major repairs needed in the next decade with a nice upside.
You can see the taxes show 2300 a year with a 166 assessed value, it’s either a lower rate or just a more accurate full year tax rate or they got an adjustment earlier. This is probably a wash or a mild cash flower. Hoa is $185.
Both those complexes are gated and have pools, one has a gym, trash, fire insurance and lanscaping/exterior water/exterior painting/maint are included in the hoa for both. Your landlord cost are fairly low vs an sfr. One we get to the 200k sfr, rent only goes up a little, and landscaping costs/maintenance are on on the landlords tab. But the sfr’s have more appreciation upside in the longrun so you just have to ask yourself what your goals are, cash flow or appreciation.
There has been an uptick in prices, bottom has probably already passed for the low end up here because buying became cheaper than rent in late 2008. sfr’s are more balanced now with rent and prices being nuetral without considering the tax deduction. Most 3000 sq ft sfr’s can be had around 300k, and will not rent for more than 2k, that’s peak rent here. There is a demographic shift once you get to sfr’s, the people that can afford 2k rent, will usually just buy and have a 2k mortgage and get a tax deduction. The small places and codos serve a different demographic, young people not ready to buy, people going through a divorce, single people not sure where they will be five years from now and not wanting to have to sell and lose the transaction costs.
Now that I think about it, the OP can use his 100k, pay cash for a little condo and have very minimal operating costs.
