SF Rental in High Point, NC

[Samantha Goetz]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $129,000
Cash invested: $10,000

My husband and I purchased this house as our primary residence in 2017. We purchased it using my VA benefits, which allowed us to purchase it with no money down. We paid off the mortgage in 2020. We lived there until 2021 when we purchased a different house to become our primary residence. Once we moved out, we hired a contractor through our rental property manager who took care of some minor repairs, repainted the inside of the house and installed new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms. We spent about $5k on the repairs. The property manager found a long-term renter who moved in shortly after we moved out. It's currently rented for $1200 a month. We pay the property manager a 9% fee each month. We are using the extra cash flow to pay off one of our other properties.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We purchased this house as our primary residence. At the time we purchased it, we weren't sure how long we'd live there. We purchased it knowing we would probably rent it out one day. My husband was still living and working in Montana when we purchased this property. He wanted a house within walking distance of a movie theater, a cross-fit gym and a grocery store. This house achieved all of those requirements so we purchased it.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We found the deal through a realtor. We didn't do much negotiation, other than asking the seller to pay for closing costs.

How did you finance this deal?

30 yr mortgage using my VA benefits

How did you add value to the deal?

We took care of the property while living there and hired a contractor to make some repairs and updates after we moved out.

What was the outcome?

We found a great renter and we are using the cashflow from this property to pay off another property we own.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I struggled to find a good contractor. For this property, I relied on the rental property management company to make a recommendation. They recommended their contractor and it worked out very well. To put it in perspective...I own two neighboring houses that have the exact same floor plan and are the same size. On house #1, I used retail contractors and my bill was a little over $10k. On house #2, I used the contractor from the property management company who made more repairs/updates for $5k.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I worked with Tri Property Pros for property management (https://tripropertypros.com)