351 Main St

Amherst Town, MA 01002

$1,400,000D-

8 bd · 7.0 ba · 4,991 sqft · Built 1800 · MultiFamily · Active · 9 DOM

Cashflow @ list (25.0% down · 7.5%)

• Estimated rent: $10,756/mo
• Mortgage (P&I): −$7,342
• Tax + insurance: −$1,379
• HOA: −$0
• Vac / Maint / Mgmt: −$2,259
• Net cashflow: $-224/mo
• Annual: $-2,686/yr
• Cap rate: 6.10%
• Cash-on-cash: -0.69%
• DSCR: 0.97
• 1% rule: 0.77%
• Cash to close: $392,000

Investor read

• This is a 3 × 3-bed/?-bath units multifamily listed at $1.40M.
• At list price, monthly cash flow is $-224 ($-3k/yr) — negative. Per door: $-75/mo.
• To cash-flow at today's rent, offer at most $1.36M (2.8% below list).
• To meet the 1% rule (rent ≥ 1% of price), the offer needs to be $1.08M (23.2% below list).
• Only 9 days on market — expect competitive offers; lowballing is unlikely to land.
• Recommended offer: $1.08M (23.2% below list) — sets the bar for 1% rule.
• Local home prices are declining (-3.0%/yr); year-one equity from $10k of loan paydown is wiped out by about $42k of value loss. Plan a longer hold.
• Location reads: area grade D — affects rentability + tenant quality, not the cash-flow math above.
• Amherst-Pelham (suburban): math 67% / reading 76% proficiency, ranked #39 of 302 in MA (top 13%) — strong family-tenant draw, lease renewals of 3-5y typical.
• Watch-outs: built in 1800 — expect roof / HVAC / electrical / plumbing capex.
• Market conditions: Rents rising fast (+9.3%/yr); 53 active listings in the ZIP; 349 units permitted in Hampshire County in 2024 (185 in 5+ unit buildings).
• Hampshire County population projected at +5% by 2050 — modest demand growth; plan on rents tracking national, not racing it.
• 2 sale attempts since 2y ago with the ask held roughly flat each time — persistent listings suggest the price (not the market) is what's stuck; bring a comps-based counter.
• Cap rate 6.1% vs local median 3.4% in Amherst Town — top-decile yield for the area; either an underpriced asset or a hidden risk that comps aren't pricing in. Stress-test before assuming the spread holds.
• At $10,756/mo this rent would consume 182% of the median local household income ($71k/yr) (locally 2123% of renters already pay >50% of income on rent) — very limited rent-growth headroom before tenants either downsize or default.

Questions for listing agent

• What do current leases actually rent for vs. the listed asking? Can we see a recent rent roll and the last 12 months of T-12 income?
• Can we see the unit-by-unit rent roll, current vacancy, and any below-market leases? What's the average tenancy length?
• What capital expenditures (roof, boiler, parking lot, exteriors) have been made in the last 5 years, and what's planned in the next 2?
• Built in 1800 — when were the roof, HVAC, electrical panel, plumbing, and water heater last replaced?
• Is there a deadline driving the sale (1031 exchange, divorce, estate, relocation)? That informs how much negotiation room exists.
• The area grade is low — what's the realistic commute time and amenity access for the typical tenant pool here? Any planned neighborhood developments (good or bad) we should know about?
• What's the average days-on-market for RENTAL listings here right now (not sales)? A rising rental-DOM trend means longer vacancies and softer asking-rent achievability than the comps imply.
• What's the recent tenant-quality profile in this submarket — average credit score on applications, eviction rate, late-payment / NSF rate, and stable-employment percentage? A property-management company in the area should have these aggregated.