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Updated almost 3 years ago,
Newbie Investor - 2 doors in 2020
I am a newbie investor from NJ. I set my goal in 2020 to have 2 doors. I did achieve the goal, but I took the risk of moving forward with condos instead of SFR or multi-family. With full time W2 job, I wanted to invest in a good neighborhood and reduce the maintenance as much as I can. Keeping a property manager would have significantly reduced my cash flow. So I wanted to buy the properties within 30 minutes drive. Here are the details.
Property 1: 2 bed 2 bath condo - Closed Jan 30th 2020
Purchase price: $198K (no repairs) ; 25% down
Rent: $1750 (got rented on Feb 13th 2020)
Cash Flow: about $400 (after mortgage, escrow, HOA). Last condo sold in the community at $230K..so building some equity there.
This last year, fortunately didnt have any maintenance calls/repair. So the cash flow from this year helped me to fund the maintenance reserve for future. This is in a great neighborhood with good school district.
Property 2: 2 bed 1 bath condo - Closed Dec 9th 2020.
Purchase price: $169K ; 25% down
Repair: $7K (no repair as such but went towards upgrading the house with new granite countertop, backsplash tiles, new bathrooms, carpet, etc)
Rent: $1600-$1650 (finalizing the tenant and with lease start date Feb 1st).
Cash Flow: about $350 (after mortgage, escrow, HOA, vacancy). The last condo sold in the community at $190K.
As of now things looking good. But back of my mind I am always thinking about all the forums I have read here talking about being cautious with condos. Now I am looking for SFR/multifamily so I can diversify my portfolio.