First Rental Ever: Single family home

[Mackenzie Grate]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $101,000
Cash invested: $11,000

Minor rehab (paint) , rented out quickly.

Eventually I refinished the attic but I did not do that to start.

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

It was my first project and it was small and manageable. This was a test run to see if I could do it.

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

MLS. I had a realtor back then.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan.

How did you add value to the deal?

I cleaned it up, painted it and brought the rent up to market value.

What was the outcome?

It's been a great investment.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

1) Having a good property manager is key. You need a team, not a person.
2) All is well until turnover time. You need to inspect your properties more to ensure tenants are taking good care of them.
3) One bad tenant can destroy your cash flow for a year.