Our first house! Buy and hold / Fix and Flip

[James Mach]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Warrior.

Purchase price: $375,000
Cash invested: $12,000
Sale price: $520,000

We bought this house as a primary residence with an FHA loan in 2017. When we first bought we had no idea about real estate investing, or knew anything really! After a few years we realized money could be made, and we started the upgrading. We did nearly all the upgrades ourselves (we left the electrical and plumbing to the licensed contractors) and ended up making around $125,000 profit after taxes and fees.

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

This was our first house, we were just excited to begin the journey! We are now committed to starting a family and becoming financially free through real estate.

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

Found on Redfin and used an Agent

How did you finance this deal?

3.5% FHA 30 year fixed

How did you add value to the deal?

Lots of sweat! My wife's hobby is interior design and her mother is also a designer, so she was the mastermind behind it all. We loved the way this house turned out!

What was the outcome?

After fees and taxes we were able to pocket around $125,000 and used part of this for the down payment on our next property, and pocketed the rest for future investments.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We learned that everything is usually more expensive than your estimates! Also, timing. We sold just before the market exploded in that area, so we lost out on a large amount of equity. But we learn from our mistakes!
A few more things we learned:
-How to make informed decisions about the location, type, and features of a home
-How to increase the value of a home through renovations and upgrades
-How to budget
-How to compare mortgage rates and terms from different lenders
-How to negotiate