2nd Investment Property in 6 Months - what next?

[Steven Arnold]

Hello BP community,

My wife and I began REI this year obtaining a 2BR 1B house (w/ detached garage and full basement) in the Oshkosh, WI area in February uncertain of what we were getting into. The questions in our mind constantly unfolded. Will this house rent, will something break, catastrophe etc. With a little bit of updating and finishing touches, I couldn't believe the interest in people wanting to rent this house. We bought this property for $99,800. It is currently rented at $1,000/mo, cash flows accordingly with our objectives and I really do enjoy being a landlord and keeping the property well-kept. So we thought, why not search for another good deal like the one we have now?

We close on a 1BR 1B home with full basement (non-conforming downstairs BR, 750sq ft, off street parking no garage) later this month. This home is blocks away from where we live, about 30 miles from the La Crosse, WI area. Looking at comps in the area, there are tons of 1B 1BR apartment for rent but no single family homes. The rent for these apartments are roughly $750-$900 from what I've seen. The seller was asking $93,500. We offered $5k over and clinched the deal. We believe with the same updating and finishing touches we can achieve $900-$950 per month. Is this naïve to be asking this much for a 1BR home with a large non conforming basement? I can paint everything, put in a new kitchen, flooring etc but at the end of the day it is still a 1BR 750 sq ft home. I'm confident we can cash flow enough money as is with little advertisement, but I'd like to make this more appealing to renters in a rapidly growing city (just crossed the 10k population mark) with new businesses and commercial food chains showing up in the next couple of years. As well as maximize cash flow, more or less "set this property apart" from others. Thank you all in advance.