Do you own a 2 family home?

**Lady_V** · 05-03-2007, 11:48 PM

If you do... do you like it? What are the pros & cons?

**annymoll** · 05-04-2007, 08:04 AM

We own half of a duplex in DH's work city.The other half is owned by one of Dh's colleagues.It was an investment, for driving and gas purposes.It is a small split level, easy to clean, well insulated, has a small yard so not alot of upkeep.Parking space is minimal, just a one car garage under the house, connecting to the basement level.Having company would be a pain.Also, our neighbor is not there full time either. I would think it to be too noisy if a couple of families were living there.

**TheRootedNomad** · 05-04-2007, 08:20 AM

We don't own one, but I grew up in one! Here's what I remember.
(We lived upstairs - mom, dad, me, two brothers, 1 sister- and dad's parents and grandmother lived downstairs) If the both parties aren't family I would think there would be more cons than what I experienced.

There was almost no true privacy but with the enforcement of shutting doors at the top and bottom of the stairs and having to knock or be invited into the part you didn't live in it was workable.

Family gatherings were much more convienient.

Help was usually available for whatever was needed.

Extra and usually unrequested opinions were always in abundance

Disagreements were frequent- and learning to work them out and respect a difference of opinion was necessary.

Security - both financial (no one was going to kick you out if the rent was late) and the feeling of safety (no one would have dared attempted to predict the scheaduale of that house and break in.....someone else was always home)

One of the more negative aspects was that in this environment dependancy can be enabled if your not carefull because there are others to pick up the slack. Usually this "someone to help" atmosphere is a positive.....but if you get a bum, or an alcaholic, or a gambling addict....or so on....their problem is in your space.

Hope this helped.

**ubumartin** · 05-04-2007, 06:58 PM

We owned a two family duplex.
Pro's you can write off improvements and expenses, 1/2 if you live there and all if you don't.
Helps with the mortgage.
Good investment if the timing is right.

Con's Having to be a landlord.
Eviction which happened to us for nonpayment.
Close proximity to neighbors, no privacy.
Sharing a yard
repairs fall all on you.

All in all it worked for us for a few years. We moved to a single family and rented both units out and it carried itself for five years until we sold it.

We bought in the late 80s and paid a lot for it at the time and we sold it in the 90's when the market came down a bit so we sold for what we bought it for but we also had a lot of equity in it and it worked out. We lived in it for a lot less then renting or buying a single family at the time. I don't regret it but it is a lot of stress at times. You have to be able to sustain it if you don't get rent on time or at all in some cases.