Live-in and Flip with 3 foster kids and a new born baby

[Jeremy Prine]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence other investment.

Purchase price: $125,000
Cash invested: $20,000
Sale price: $200,000

We used strategies from a Bigger Pockets book to buy from a bank, do the renovations while living in the house, and then sold it while the market was up. We are now looking to purchase multi-family properties in the Norfolk/ Virginia Beach area.

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

I read the book on investing in real estate by Brandon Turner.

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

I bought at an auction from Regions Bank. Others backed out because of maintenance issues but I knew how to repair them.

How did you finance this deal?

GI Bill.

How did you add value to the deal?

We remodeled the kitchen, removed the chimney, rebricked the outside, painted interior and exterior (ourselves to save money), painted the kitchen cabinets, added new appliances, took off the hideous, red metal roof and had a new rood added. I also ripped out all the plants in the front and yards and added sod. We also had to have the entire house rewired by a professional since the previous owner was on meth and wired the house himself.

What was the outcome?

We cleared $53,000 in profit.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Do the landscaping last. The contractors who tore out the chimney destroyed our sod with their heavy equipment. They also dropped shingles on my wife's car. My wife managed the contractors like a hawk and made them rip out their brickwork and redo it because it was not up to her standards.

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

Marty Sherer was amazing! She sold our house helped us look for another before we decided not to buy because the market got too high.