Current Ventura Duplex Rehab

[Baird King]

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $650,000
Cash invested: $170,000

Duplex fixer. Negotiated $25k off the purchase price during escrow. Appraised for $700k at closing. Cranked out rehab of the back unit with contract help to turn into a short-term rental. Moved into the finished back unit while we fix up the front to long-term-rental standards; largely ourselves... because we love it! Goal is to have the front unit ready for us to move-in by December 2022 then start STR in the back. TBD how long we'll live in the front before turning into a rental.

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

Location :-) Also, duplexes are our thing.

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

Found it off market. The seller was hesitant to work with us and wanted to take advantage of the hot market, so ended up listing it before we could make them an offer. They listed it for $25k less than we would have offered off-market, then we negotiated another $25k off that during escrow due to foundation issues we discovered. It appraised for $50k over our purchase price.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional.

How did you add value to the deal?

Full rehab of the back unit complete. Full rehab of the front currently in the works.

What was the outcome?

Ask me in December 2022, but so far everything is looking very promising!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Make sure people cash checks that you give them. We successfully arranged cash-for-keys and the previous tenants were quickly out-of-site-out-of-mind once they moved out. In the midst of all our other expenses, we missed that they had not cashed the check (or the deposit check) until 3 months later when they attempted to. Needless to say it was a big month for expenses and the funds weren't in the account at the time. It was embarrassing.

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

My wife found it off-market, then I represented us when the seller decided to list. Great team effort! Always excited to help fellow investors with their search, offers and negotiations! Let's do it!

[Chris V.]

Thanks for the great post Baird!

My wife and I remodeled a duplex in Ventura a couple of years ago as well. It was our first remodel and we learned a lot. Now it's a longterm rental. Our next step with the property is deciding whether to rebuild the garage or add an ADU.

Good luck with the rest of the remodel! Please keep us posted.