New Investor -- Tips Needed!!!

[Carson Hyland]

Hello, 

I'm excited to be starting my real estate investing journey with my wife. We are in East Central Illinois. We are both in our mid 20's, so we were still pretty naive when it comes to a lot of this stuff. We bought our first property off market back in Sept 2024. It was basically a gut job. We remodeled the whole thing and should have it rent ready in by 3/25. Renovations were quite a bit more than we had expected due to more issues than we were aware of. Even with that, I think we will still be way ahead. 

2 bed, 1 bath, 1200sq/ft, detached 1 car garage

Purchase Price: $38,000

Repairs: $20,000

ARV: $96,000 (based off Zillow, but a local real estate agent thought that was pretty accurate)

Mortgage: $430

Insurance: $55

Trash Included: $25

Rent: $1,000

We are now going through applications for our first tenant. 

Like I said, I am very excited to get started, but it is slightly overwhelming! Haha! 

Any tips or advice would be appreciated!!