New Investor South Of Columbus Ohio

[Rich Johnson]

Who knew BP was out there...I stumbled on the site when I was searching the web for a rental application for my former primary residence. What a great information resource !!! I've always been interested in real estate. I bought my first 5 acres of land when I was 21. Three years later after that I had my first house built. What a great feeling to be 24 with a brand new house on a 5 acres plot out in the country. Well fast forward 20 years later and that property is paid for and my neighbor next door is getting foreclosed on. I decided to try and buy his house. It was much larger and had a better floor plan than what we had plus it included another 5 acres....so after a very long process of trying to buy the house, first at sheriff sale, no deal there, then deal back and forth with HomePath (Fannie Mae) we were finally able to purchase the property for $147,000. After 14 months of me swinging the hammer, sweating pipes, painting, etc etc...the list goes on and on...oh and don't forget another $40,000 for rehab...it appraised this past summer for $260,000. What an education that was...especially on holding cost. I should have paid contractors to do a lot more of the work. The quicker it was done the quicker we could have started renting our former house ($1200/month) but I learned a lot and it's time to start looking for my next buy and hold rental property here south of Columbus.