Building Equity in Alaska - 300 miles from the nearest road

[Nick Bruckner]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Cash invested: $100,000

We built our first home with cash and borrowing from friends and family in Unalakleet, Alaska, some 300 miles from the nearest road - a village of 700 people. It's really hard to get a construction loan out there - there is no active real estate market. After the home was complete, we got an appraisal, took out a HELOC to reimburse friends and family, lived there five years and now we rent it out.

How did you finance this deal?

We had to get creative with limited options.

How did you add value to the deal?

Sweat equity.

What was the outcome?

Awesome cash flow for a SFH.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

There is no Lowes or Home Depot. All materials must be barged up in the summer from Seattle or Anchorage and everything else must be flown in. Getting contractors is incredibly expensive and difficult. So I had to learn a lot of construction skills from youtube, friends and family. The build took five years and a lot of blood sweat and tears. We scrounged foundation posts from old telephone poles that washed up on the beach.