Purchased, lived in for 2 years, rented out for cashflow

[Sasha Casallo]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $285,000

We bought this home with the long picture in mind. Right off the bat, we knew we wanted to buy a home to later rent out. So we targeted specific areas that hold their value, and are rental friendly.

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

I bought this home out of desperation for a place to live in at the time. The market was very aggressive. I found this deal on Zillow, as a traditional buyer, and put in an offer $10K over the asking price with a personalized letter to the sellers, sight-unseen.

How did you finance this deal?

VA loan

Lessons learned? Challenges?

This home was built in 1999, and we bought it with all of its original appliances. Since everything worked while we occupied the house, we rented it out with all the original appliances as well. We rented through a 3rd-party management company - and have been flooded with maintenance fees, new appliances, and emergency handyman service charges throughout the 3 years we have rented out the home. For future rentals, I will update all major appliances and vet my maintenance companies for services.