Hey everyone! Finally entered the ranks of Real Estate Investors officially with the close of our first REI deal. It was a Low Money Down/House Hacking deal as well.

Here's how it broke down:

Purchase Price $197,000

Appraised Value $ 230,000

Rents- $700/month x 4

Type: Quadplex (all units 2/2)

Built: 2003 (wood frame/ concrete slab foundation/ metal roof)

Financing: VA 30 year fixed ~3.5%

PITI= $1374 /mo

HOA= $270/mo

Utilities- Electricity sub metered and water sub metered

So my wife and I were relocating due to a military change of assignment. I started researching the market about 4 months out from our move. I screened multiple realtors, and picked one with vast experience in investment property. I had previously been stationed in Columbus, GA so I new quite a bit about the city. Upon touching ground here in April, I had already lined up about 15 properties to look at with my realtor. My wife and I also drove other areas and did more research ourselves, as well as went to a lot of open houses. I had been eyeing another property in this neighborhood and was planning on putting an offer on it. It was also a quadplex with all units 2/2. The exterior of the property needed more work. The week I was getting here and settling in, my realtor emailed me this property, saying it had just popped up on the MLS as a Fannie Mae foreclosure. Asking price was 190,900. After viewing the property and calling my mentor, I put in an offer for $170,000. The offer was rejected due to the fact there was another offer. We were asked for "Highest and Best". We offered 195,000 and our offer was accepted over the other. Through the due diligence period I was very stressed out, ensuring I was present for home inspection/structural inspection/pest inspection/etc. My lender was very helpful in getting the loan processed, however required Fannie Mae fix a HWH and sand/paint the exterior stairs before closing the loan. I was nervous that this would not happen, Fannie Mae typically sells "As Is" and won't budge. They did agree after some time, and everything was complete a couple days after the original agreed upon date.

After closing, I went to work, painting all three of the units interiors that we would be renting. Wow, that sucked. 3000 sq feet of interior space was a lot of painting. It looks amazing though, took about a week of after work time (Cost about $500 worth of paint and materials). I also swapped out new locks and new doorbells. One of the units had a freon leak, which was discovered during the home inspection. So we replaced the HVAC unit in that apartment ($2800). After closing costs of $2,400/$2,800 HVAC and /$500 painting we have our first quadplex! Currently marketing it for rent, and finding its hard to find good quality tenants. We have our criteria well defined and are sticking to it though.

I have been reading and studying real estate investing since 2004. I have been wanting to do this, even got licensed in California in 2006 and also did mortgages until the 2008 crash. This was a guiding reason I joined the military when I did (also the surge in Iraq). I am very excited that my wife and I have now been able to acquire our first and are very eager to learn as much as possible over this next year with the difficulties of property management. Thank you to my mentor, I would not have been able to pull the trigger without your inspiration. Thank you to BP for showing me that this is completely possible and challenging conventional thinking by proving this IS the path to REAL wealth.

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The breakdown of our first investment property purchase

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