Fixer triplex in Long Beach CA

[Melinda Elmer]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $500,000
Cash invested: $10,000
Sale price: $980,000

Bought a fixer triplex, rented it for a while, ended up living in the home while going through a divorce, and then sold it to get the primary residence deduction.

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

Wanted opportunity to improve my neighborhood and also my funds!

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

It was a property I walked by all the time and thought, someone should fix that house up, it would be so cute, and then it came up for sale and I jumped on it.

How did you finance this deal?

used conventional financing. Bought with my parents, and then ended up buying them out.

How did you add value to the deal?

Put in sweat equity and invested fixing it up and then held onto it while the market went up.

What was the outcome?

Made 400K.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Had some challenges and lessons in the upgrades and the costs for expenses. I learned to not hire friends, but better to hire the right professionals to do the work.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I was the agent on the deal.