I bought a negative cash flow property, and it's a good thing I did!

[Mike Sattem]

First off a few notes:

1. My area would be considered remote by most (the closest town with over 15,000 people is 80 miles).

2. My area is considered low income, as most folks work for less than $15 per hour at the Lumber Mill or Travel Trailer Manufacturing Plant.

3. The 1% rule is great if you can find it, and the 2% rule is impossible to attain.  Most 1 Bedroom Apartments in my area rent for $400.

So, with that in mind I will get started. I just finished rehabbing a four plex I bought for $150K (Yellow Letters do work, FYI). The building was vacant when I bought it, so doing a full on rehab was easy. 4 New water heaters, 19 New windows, 4 units worth of carpet and paint, and $2,000 worth of appliances.  I did almost all of this work myself, but still ended up spending close to $10,000.

I am now placing tenants and earning some money. Yay for me! I bought this property with $0 down (another yay for me!) however this means that my payment is pretty high; $1,052 monthly plus $150 in taxes and insurance. So, when it is all said and done I actually lose $50 per month once I take out 10% for vacancy and 10% for CapEx/Maintenance. What a mess!

Here is why this is a great problem to have: 

1. Because I bought this property with $0 down I only have my fix-up money invested.

2. Because all the money I normally would have used as a downpayment went into improvements, my property is sitting pretty with a value closer to $200K.

3. Because of my new found equity I can now refinance with a local credit union, saving 2% on the rate, and flipping my negative $50 cash flow to a positive $300 cash flow with a 30 year note.

In closing, when evaluating a property remember what your end goal is, and all the different ways you can get there. Most folks I have worked with would have rather found a $150K rent ready property and put $10K down, which is a great plan if you can find it. I chose to find a junker property and spend that same $10K improving the property, thereby making a cool $35K in equity for later on down the road. Even at this point most folks would have never done this deal because they would see the negative cash flow. But Real Estate is more like Chess than Checkers, so looking two steps ahead is a must. 

I bought a junker property that has negative cash flow, and it just might be my best deal to date.

[Mike Sattem]

@Marcus Johnson  Very True. Any property can cash flow if you put enough money down. The important part of this story is to remember that I bought this property with no money down, spent $10K on the rehab, and then refinanced the property allowing me to gain a cash flowing property and getting me my fix up money back so that I rinse and repeat the entire process over again in perpetuity. I financed all of my closing costs into the loans, and was refunded my earnest money because I had no expenses at closing. 

The way I see this comparison is below. I would choose option 1 every time.

1. $0 down for $300 a month

2. $20K down for $700 a month