50 Teil Tree- My First Rental

[Mateo Oquendo-Chandler]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $170,000
Cash invested: $27,000

My first single family rental property. Got lucky with a small $80/month HOA fee where they handle cutting the grass and managing the community common areas.

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

Great neighborhood. This home appeared to have been foreclosed on judging by the condition it was left in. The damage was cosmetic. The listing price was low enough that within a few weeks i had built some sweat equity.

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

Spent about 6-7 months doing daily searches in a few cincinnati areas on Zillow. One day I found this property listed on Zillow. Asking price was $180,000 - I Offered $165,000 - Seller Countered at $175,000- I Countered at $169,000 - Seller's final offer was $170,000- Which I accepted.

How did you finance this deal?

Bank Loan and used an Ohio First Time Home Buyer program, which allowed me to waive PMI, put little to no money down. I decided to put 10% down to lower monthly mortgage payment to about $1,000/month. The bank also helped me apply for a $5,000 grant to go towards down payment as well, which ended up being about 3%.

How did you add value to the deal?

Holes in the wall were repaired. New paint, upgraded to vinyl floor on first floor, replaced carpet, new blinds, and replaced all the floor boards and rotten rails on the back deck. Also, installed stainless steel appliances and included washer dryer to offer a great value to the tenant.

What was the outcome?

3 months of work and rented within a week of listing it on Facebook. Turned out to be a grand slam and I am blessed to have had the opportunity to have this as my first.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I wanted to get a contractor in for a quote so that I could understand the cost of having the work doing versus farming it out myself, but even that proved to be hard. I think this was caused by the fact I was the one bringing the material and was just wanting a quote for labor and most companies weren't a fan of that.
I learned that coming soon posts/ads were a great help for getting foot traffic along with showing some of the before and afters.
Patience is virtue.

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

I had a great real estate agent that helped me through the entire process and was very great at communicating with me and the seller's agent. Sometimes my agent would follow up daily until she received an answer to show she was serious about doing business.
I was recommended a wonderful loan officer who helped me with getting pre-approved the same day and was more than willing to adjust my pre-approval letter when I was sending in POF for offers.