Newbie dusting off and getting back on track in Buffalo, NY.

[Sam Battaglia]

Greetings all! Born and raised Buffalonian who loves the outdoors. IT networking guy by day, maker by night. I enjoy camping, dirt biking, snowmobiling and many other outdoor activities. I’m often found in my workshop making things out of wood and other materials that I usually gift to others. I’m typically the random stranger that pulls or pushes people out of deep snow. I really enjoy helping people.

In 2011, life threw me a curveball as I went through a separation and needed to repurchase my house for $75k. A few months after that transaction I decided to turn the property into a rental opportunity. I was working 60+ hour weeks at a W2 job, finishing a degree and also spent a considerable amount of time getting the place ready to rent and then in August 2012 I needed to change jobs.

For the first 1 year 5 months things were going great. The mortgage on that property was just over $800 bucks and I was renting the place for $1200/mo so it was making decent cash flow. It was soon after 1 year 7 months that my tenants started to slip on rent and I found myself chasing payments and regretting ever renting to begin with. I heard all the usual excuses, but I was growing tired of chasing money.

At about the 2 year mark I decided I was going to sell the place and be done with rentals. I was maxed out. With all the things going on with my new job and trying to go back to school, I needed to simplify a very stressed out life. Three months into dozens of open houses and hundreds of people going through the property, I still had no reasonable offers and it became apparent that I needed to remove my tenants who were quickly approaching squatter status.

Finally, in 2014, after the usual eviction process and doing a minor rehab of the place yet again, I got an offer I could live with at $95k. In the end, after considering all repairs to date, tenants owing over $3k and a $500 unpaid water bill, I probably made about $5k, but man did it feel like I was just breaking even.

Fast forward to today and reflecting on lessons learned from that experience, I am again getting back into the swing of things. Today I'm exploring creating an investment property LLC with my wife and a few very close, open and honest friends. Our scope will start as managing rental properties that earn passive income and to amass enough units to fully augment our W2 jobs.

I’m eager to get back into property management and I’ve been consuming as many BP podcasts as I can. I have much to learn and I’m really looking forward to being a part of the community. 

Sam