If you could do your first deal over

[Sean Ade]

Hey everyone! I'm researching my first property to buy out in Portland OR. Ideally a duplex or single family ADU so I can start cutting my costs to save money faster for the second house.

I'd love to hear from experienced investors looking back on their first property.

If you could do it again, would you? Would you buy the same house? Would you have taken a different approach? What were some of the mistakes you made simply from not knowing.

Thanks!

[Theo Hicks]

My biggest mistake was failing to account of deferred maintenance in my "down payment". I purchased three 4plexes with lots of boiler issues, but I didn't account for that cost when underwriting the deal, so I had to pay nearly $20k out of pocket. 

The lesson: always know the condition of the big-ticket items, as well as the costs to remediate any issues.