First Investment: Student rental!

[Gavin Lavat]

In the Works! I have submitted my first official offer. I found a 4 bedroom 1 bathroom, in great shape ready to live in. Comes with appliances and some furniture. within a mile of my campus (walking distance) The listing price was $29,900. I offered the seller $20,000 no financing, close in 2 weeks. The home has been on the market for almost a year. I will be getting it inspected but will be buying "as is" as long as there isn't any serious foundation/mold issues. I am aiming for such a cheap house to mitigate any risk, and I think it will be a great property to start my investing with. I plan on living in this house for the first semester, and renting out the other three rooms to my friends. The average rent per room ranges from $1700-2050 in my college town. My plan is to fix this house up while I live in it (minor cosmetics like paint, clean the outside up...etc) After the first semester I plan to get the house appraised and refinance so that I can put a down payment on another house within a mile of campus, fix the place up while I live in it, and rent it out to students along with renting out the first house. I want to follow this method until I have at least 4 rental properties around the campus. In/around my college there are a lot of foreclosures with a lot of potential, I am pretty handy and can do most the work myself while going to school, even hire my buddies for cheap labor. I am very excited about making my first official offer and just wanted to post about it, and what my overall (simplified) plan is. If anyone has any pointers, veteran knowledge, or flaws they see in my plan please let me hear it!