Introduction/ First Deal! (Columbus OH Investor)

[Austin Paulenske]

What's up BiggerPockets community,

My name is Austin and I'm a newbie investor out of Columbus Ohio. I am a 25 year old Senior Process Engineer working full time in the optical industry overseeing manufacturing operations for producing perception glasses and part time BiggerPockets fanatic/ Investor. I hope to retire from my engineering job within the next 5 years and focus full time on Real Estate Investing. The niche that has sparked my interest is long-term rental properties/ buy and hold, cash flowing multi-family homes and potentially Airbnb vacation rentals as well... we will see where this road takes me! I recently completed real estate school in pursuit of a salesperson license but realized that path is not where I want to land (no pun intended), and have since shifted my focus onto the Investing side of the game. 

I recently closed my first deal in a westside suburb of Cleveland Ohio on an off-market condo deal. I purchased a gutted 990 square foot condo for $70,000 with a 203k loan with an additional $35,000 for construction for a total bundled mortgage of $105,000. Just finishing up the construction and got my tenant in there last week (my mother). I learned a whole a lot about all the "red tape" surrounding the whole construction loan process through a lender (took almost 4 months to close) and the hoops you have to jump through to pull off the deal. On top of that I learned a thing or two about unreliable/ unprofessional contractors and trying to manage a full rehab project from 3 hours away by myself (do not recommend). Anyways, when it's all said and done, seeing the ROI/cash flow potential and the learning experience that I gained from this project makes it all worth it!

Excited to embark on this new adventure and contribute to the BiggerPockets community!

I attached the deal analysis below for anyone who is curious, would love some feedback/ constructive criticism. 
View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.