Wanna See My Aparment?

This is pretty awesome, on the one hand, and sucks that I'm at this place in life, on the other. The title of this post is linked to the Stark realty site, who happen to be the deal-makers on the property I'm currently living in. I got word a week and a half ago that the building I'm living in, along with it's mate next door, were going on the market. These buildings are each four unit buildings, each unit has 2 bedrooms, and a full, unfinished basement with built-in storage units. You can check this fact on the website: both buildings were going for the combined asking price of 550,000. I won't go into some other details quite yet, as there's some dealings going on right now, but you'd either have to be insane or completely ignorant to the state of affairs in Madison to not think that's the best deal ever. Do the math (trust me, I did): each unit rents (currently) for about $700, there's a total of 8 units, and even with a 5.75 APR the 30 year mortgage is only going to require somewhere around 35K a year. That leaves you with enough for maintenance, taxes, and some wiggle room for emergencies/vacant units and still turns quite a useful profit the first year! To be honest, I was actually looking into a couple sources of capital this past week. Someone in my position doesn't have the luxury of being able to scrounge the kind of money necessary for a downpayment in that kind of time (give me 2 years, maybe), but as I doubt I've mentioned it yet, the building I live in is perfectly located and perfectly laid out. In other words, if I could buy any property in Madison right now for realistic and practical purposes, this would be it. Of course, following the advice of a wise old woman (don't tell her I called her old), I've in mind to start a little smaller for my first property. But it is a project I actually have in mind to do while I'm up in Madison. Perhaps an older, split level house which has already been converted for apartment living. I could either live in one unit and rent out the other, or, if a second project I have in mind turns out to be feasible, I might purchase such a place and rent out both units (aka, I would be able to live elsewhere...and no, unfortunately that's not with my future med-school girlfriend). But I'm fairly handy around an old house (thank you, 716 Broadway), and Madison is of the nature to ensure there'll always be renters (not to mention, I'm not in it for the money; check my overhead and a little wiggle room for unforeseens, and you've got yourself a monthly payment plan).

So, while the pipedream of buying this wonderful piece of property is out of my reach, the overall plan is in place to purchase a similarly wonderful piece of property in the near future. I'm currently putting together a down payment (yes, I'm just that "thrifty" with my money) and will be actively looking for a place to buy come next March or April. I'll be talking about both that plan and the consequences of the sale of my current residence as the deals get closed. In the meantime, just thought it was kind of odd that pictures of my apartment are posted on the internet (by the way, they're the latter 3, and you can see the matching buildings which sit on either side of the communal driveway from this page, as well).