Small city investing

[Joe Long]

know your area!  A partner and myself invested in an 11 unit building on Bridge St, Corning NY.  We got a great deal on the building by purchasing for $185,000.  The rent roll when we purchased the building was $3,500.  We had about a year of investing experience at the time under our belts.  We knew enough that we could quickly pump the rent rolls up with a little sweat equity.   We went to work the first day we closed on the building..... Cleaning, painting, showing, what ever it took!  Soon we increased the rent roll too 4,500 within a month by filling vacant units and slightly increasing market rates.  We then began renting units at the top of the market when ever we had turnover and quickly increased our rent roll to $6,500-7,000 a month.

We had enough cash flow to purchase other properties in the Corning area and replace the leaky roof. We decided to try selling the property on the MLS. We repositioned the property to a cash flowing machine and felt the timing was right. The property went under contract within a few days and sold for $275,000 in a month.

We made a $90,000 profit in a little over a years time by knowing our market.  We knew that we could quickly double the rent roll and increase the current market rates in our area.