First Rental Property

[Austin Gunther]

I'm starting out my real estate journey with a condo in NC. I just wanted to put my plan out there and get some feedback from the pro's in here.

I'm purchasing a 2/1.5 condo with a tenant who has a lease until December. She has been there for 4 years and it seems she wants to stay. Purchase price is $71,500, rent $850/mo. The unit is older, built in 1975 and has quite a few small issues, est. about $1000 in repairs. The carpets and appliances will be upgraded once the current tenant moves out so another $5kish this Dec. or possibly next. I'll be putting 25% down, and it appraised for $72k so the only equity will pretty much be my down payment. The cash-flow should be between $50 and $200 based on the calculations I've ran from worst case to best case. Although, I realize worst case could mean it turns it to a money pit.

My goal is to pay this off within 6 months and do a cash-out refi, most likely. Take that and find a partner with more experience to find a bigger, multi-family property to really start building my portfolio.

This is my current plan and hopefully everything goes accordingly but I'm always trying to learn so I'd love to hear everyone's take on this. Possible other plans, something I missed or haven't thought about. Thanks!