First deal (Duplex) rehab and build - with pics!!

[Jordan Thompson]

Hello BP!  I've been a pro member for about 6 months now and am proud to announce that I have officially closed on my first deal - a duplex!  The gameplan for this thread is to chronicle my progress through the rehab, marketing, and management so hopefully I can learn from the experts and any new or aspiring investors can learn from my experiences.  Any and all feedback is welcome - I really want to learn, and would love to hear opinions and guidance.  I'm very new to this but I've fully embraced the challenge and have been hooked ever since the offer was made...  so here goes nothing:

The background:

REI has been a focus of mine for years but I apparently didn't take it as seriously as it wanted... until this year (2021). I've worked my way out of about 17k of personal debt, made some sacrifices, refinanced the primary residence and aggressively saved every penny I could spare for my capital fund. I sold my Infiniti late last year, promptly bought an older Corolla, paid off the remaining balance of my credit card in March, refinanced the house in May, and made my first offer on July 26th (they declined...). At that point, I had about 9k saved up; not bad for a newbie I suppose. To top this all off, I'm married and my wife has some medical issues that prevent her from working a full-time job and her hand of cards brings a few higher-than-normal costs to the 'ol budget. Rest assured she makes up for it in her faith and support...

The Support:  where to start...

First and foremost, I couldn't have been more blessed by God to have the supportive wife that I do.  Seriously.  It would have been sooooo easy for her to be negative and try to sway my endeavors and opinions away from Real Estate investing since it's not her niche, or she's scared we'll lose money, or we need to focus on a better life, or... any number of the other excuses some spouses can make.  I've only ever gotten a "Go for it" response from her for anything that I was passionate about and I couldn't be more thankful for it!  Her faith in my drive and ability is second to none - even myself most times.

My agent.  I mentioned I've been a member for a while - listening to the podcasts, reading books, and then took the plunge earlier this year as a pro member - good move when you realize you need to get serious - more on this in a sec...  I reached out to the agent that helped my wife and I purchase our primary about 4 years ago since she has experience with investors and she connected me with @Jordan Spaller ... (good powerful first name lol).  I feel guilty for how much work he has done on this deal for the commission he made... He has a background in hospitality and it DEFINITELY came through with this search.  The amount of comps and disclosures he pulled, Saturdays and Sundays he spent touring properties and responsiveness to my neediness have been unparalleled and he deserves a trophy.  Looking for a property in the Charlotte, Concord, Hickory, Statesville area?  Then reach out to him...  He finally drank the BiggerPockets Kool-aid and became a member!  Welcome to BP Jordan!

The deal: I wanted a duplex. SFH just didn't seem to produce good numbers so I moved up the chain and this one fit the bill... we closed on 11/12 and so began my quest on basic rehabbing; skills I knew nothing about. Here are the listing photos:

  While it didn't show well, it does have a ton of potential; at least that's how both my brain cells and I justified it.  So we made the offer, it got accepted, and @Jordan Spaller negotiated credit for repairs.  We've made some progress so far and I'll keep the pics and posts coming...  Stay tuned

Jordan