New investor from Louisville, KY

[Ian Hooper]

Hello, everyone, my name is Ian Hooper. I'm a high school teacher from Louisville, KY, and getting in to the investment game, this summer.  My current goals are to make a deal on a small multi-family property within the next two months, and to complete a second within the next nine months.

I'm grateful for this resource; I learn more with every mouse click.

Peace.

[Kevin Nalley]

@Stephen Lewis Various places, I bought a couple that were for sale by owner, two more from a company that bought bulk REO's from the banks, then the remainder on the MLS, but that's dried up.

I bought my first property in July 2009 for $6k, it was an estate sale and it needed a complete rehab, I ended up with way too much money into that property, but it was a great learning experience. Second property was a FSBO, an apartment building on Portland Avenue (across from the Portland Museum), a wholesaler had it under contract and was asking $35k, I ended up paying $17k, rents today for $1700. My best deal to date was a listing by Econohomes, they were advertising on Craigslist a 3 bed, 1 bath home on Market Street for around $15k. At the time, that did not sound like a deal but I looked anyways, turned out it was tri-plex and I negotiated them down to $8k. I had about $8k in repairs and I have it fully rented today for almost $1300.

I was fortunate enough to have another business that was surviving the recession when I started.  Banks were not loaning money during that time so I had to find properties I could buy for cash, thus I ended up with Portland properties.  I don't regret going that route but, if I could do it over again, I would have bought Germantown properties for a little more ($20k - $35k) which would have tripled in value, higher rents, and easier tenants.