What sparked my journey in to real estate investing..

[Mariana Kurko]

Investment Info:

Other buy & hold investment in Saint Cloud.

Purchase price: $3,700
Cash invested: $4,200
Sale price: $67,000

Purchased a small lot of land outside of Austin, Texas close to lake access, bordering a natural park, in a planned community. Originally intended to build a home on it myself but decided to sell at the height of the Austin real estate market. This experience got me interested in real estate investing. Now starting intentionally!

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

When I first looked at the land ten years ago I thought that Austin was growing and that eventually land outside Austin would go up in value.

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

I found it by looking at the MLS maps at land under $5000 (yes outside Austin you could find land for less than 5k 15yeaars ago) because that was all I had then and found this one lot that bordered the national park and was close to lake access. I thought these things would be desirable as an investment.

How did you finance this deal?

Paid in cash from a gift from my mother who took out cash from her life insurance dividends.

How did you add value to the deal?

nothing added

What was the outcome?

Held onto the land for about 15 years with back taxes owed. Sold it with multiple bids in 2022.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

To trust my intuition about what is desirable in a property, to be able to hold on to the property long term and let it grow in value, and to not discount land as an option.

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

Worked with a real estate agent for buying the property.