Student Rental turned Long-Term Corporate Rental in Pensacola

[Phil Moore]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $215,000
Cash invested: $40,000

We own a small multi-family property in Pensacola near NAS and Perdido Key that we rent fully furnished to military, traveling nurses or corporations. We cash flow over $3k/mo.

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

This initially started off as a house hack that I intended to BRRRR. I knew that there was a lot that could be done with the property with numerous exit strategies should something go not as planned.

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

This deal was actually off-market brought to me via a family friend. The seller needed to get out of the house, and I had money that I was itching to invest.

How did you finance this deal?

I went in extremely leveraged with effectively zero out of pocket. I employed a "career starter loan" that was originally 36k to pay closing costs on a VA loan for the initial purchase. That starter loan money plus a couple of strategic IOUs allowed us to renovate the property and start generating cash flow.

How did you add value to the deal?

The property featured an unimproved accessory dwelling unit (the second unit) that we worked with family friends to DIY renovate and turn into a fully furnished cash flow machine.

What was the outcome?

We’ve done a bit of everything with this property. From house hack, to student rental, to furnished long term corporate rentals, this property has been a great foray into real estate that has engendered a real passion for investing.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

If I had one takeaway from this entire experience since 2019, I would say that you don’t always have to know the end goal to get started. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that this one investment would be as profitable as it has been. All it takes is a good idea, some conviction, and a little courage to take the first step.