My accidental live in flip

[Justin Vasconcelos]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $299,000
Cash invested: $30,000
Sale price: $471,000

I was able to live for free for 4 years after I sold it. This was not my original intention. I learned about bigger pockets 6 months after I bought it!

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

It was the cheapest house in a nice neighborhood. The house was undervalued by 30k when I bought it.

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

I went with a realtor. He was able to help me out and got me an amazing deal. I had no idea what I was doing as a 27 year old first time home buyer.

How did you finance this deal?

30 year mortgage with 3% down. I was dead broke so I pulled the down payment off a credit card and used that to get the house. I quickly paid the card off within a couple months after the purchase.

How did you add value to the deal?

New roof, new construction windows, Siding on 2 sides of the home, new exterior and interior doors, replaced all trim and painted throughout, new upstairs carpet, repaired sprinkler system and got all new appliances. Over the years I also repaired the lawn by paying trugreen to spray and seed while I put down new dirt and patched spotty areas. I did a decent chunk of the work myself which helped me keep my expenses low.

What was the outcome?

I lived for free for 4 years. I got all my money back out and bought another beat up property in the same neighborhood.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned that I don't have to replace everything in a house. There was a decent amount of money I could have saved if I had just painted a few doors rather than replacing them.

I learned how to work on almost every part of a house.

Now after listening to bigger pockets and reading financial books for the last 4 years, I am significantly more educated in real estate.

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

I got my MA real estate license and sold the property myself.