Buy Real Estate and Wait

[Christopher Pickup]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $193,000
Cash invested: $49,000

This little duplex was rung #1 on the property ladder, and it has changed our life.
We were living in Vancouver and the prospect of purchasing a home felt out of reach given the high cost of homes. Then we switched strategies to looking in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I grew up and had many competitive advantages.
So before we got our own property to live in, we bought this duplex. This property has catapulted us into the world of real estate investing and has paved the way forward for us. It has cashflowed since day 1 and continues to be a beast!
To use a @davidgreene line - this house bought me more houses.

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

Cash. Flow.
2 units in a good residential neighbourhood close to a good school a near highway access.

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

It was sitting on the MLS

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional Financing

How did you add value to the deal?

At a tenant turnover we added a heat pump unit, hot water tanks, new cabinets, paint, and flooring.

What was the outcome?

the property has steadily cash-flowed, and rents as well as property value has now more than doubled over the last 5 years

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Each time I had a tenant issue, a repair to make or late rent, my initial resposne was to want to give in and give up. Sell it all.

What I came to realize is that at each turn, life/God was inviting me to dig deeper into myself and seek a bigger "why" behind these struggles - who do I have the opportunity to become through facing these obstacles head on?!
"even suffering ceases to be suffering when it finds a meaning"