Looked at first triplex yesterday...

[Kevin Means]

So two days ago I finally got the courage to call my realtor and tell him I wanted to look at a triplex that has 2 of the three units rented out that seemed like a great deal with very good cash flow. When I walked in with my brother, things were even worse than I could’ve imagined... every thing I thought would have been wrong was perfectly fine. The tenant that was there at the time was nice and we talked about whether or not there were issues with the property that he noticed (none) and that specific neighborhood in the city and he also mentioned that he was planning on renewing his lease in a couple of months when it’s up. There were some minor cosmetic things that needed to be taken care of in the empty unit and a couple of the windows outside needed to be properly capped but we could tell that all of the major things were fairly new. This property has the potential to be a cash flow machine. Now I’m sitting here the next morning after looking at the property arguing in my own head whether or not I should just go ahead and make an offer and for how much. I’ve been researching and looking for a while and was fully expecting to look at a bunch of properties and it being a while before I found one that was perfect and I think I might’ve with this one. Well... here goes nothing.

[Josh Dillingham]

@Kevin Means What you described was the same position I was in 2 1/2 years ago.  I decided I wanted to invest in real estate, learned everything I could, worked up the courage to view a triplex that was 2/3 occupied, felt like I was way in over my head even though all the numbers seemed to work...Then...I made an offer.  2 1/2 year later The cash-flow and the fact that my tenants pay all my living expenses has allowed my to buy a single family rental which I was able to fix up, force appreciation and do a cash-out refi, which gave me the down payment I needed for a 5 unit apartment building which I am closing on next month. 

Trust me when I say that you will NEVER feel like you know what you are doing on that first deal. but at some point you have to jump.  run the numbers, then rerun the numbers, if everything tells you it works, make the offer, and don't look back.