1st Investment Property in Palm Beach Gardens, FL

[Ryan Newton-Block]

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment in Palm Beach Gardens.

Purchase price: $227,000

Buy and Hold Property. 100K down, remaining principle paid off in full over 5 years. Furnished long-term rental cash flows $3,250 per month.

To be honest I purchased it with the intention of potentially living there after my stint in NYC, but it ended up being a cash flowing property.

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

It was two-fold.

1) I wanted to purchase a property but was working real estate in Manhattan at the time and a decent condo there was 1M+ and unaffordable.

2) I was seeing my hometown of Palm Beach Gardens, FL explode. So it ended up being not only and investment but I knew I wouldn't live in Manhattan the rest of my life so it was also my insurance policy for if I needed to move home and rebuild my realty business essentially from scratch.

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

It was off-market through a connection who lived in the condo complex and introduced me to the owner.

How did you finance this deal?

I wanted low monthlies and was in a good position to put $100K down.

How did you add value to the deal?

Took it prior to MLS listing and saved them some work.

What was the outcome?

Optimal outcome. I was invested in crypto, and back then, the market was good (not so now lol). But when I'd make a bit of crypto loot, I'd make principal only payments and eventually got the $127K balance paid off in 4/5 years. The condo would appraise around $430K-ish at the moment. So it's cash flowing $3,250 per month + gained somewhere around $200K in equity.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I found someone in the building who was moving in with their new husband and I bought every piece of their basically-new furniture from them for $4,000. I saved them the hassle of moving their furniture, and on the market they likely could've sold everything for $10,000. So I was able to save $6,000 by knowing some folks in the building. I was able to furnish the condo and rent it for $400-$500 more per month than I likely would've been unfurnished.

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

Although I was in real estate in NY at the time, I wasn't on the ground in FL. I didn't want to deal with renting this remotely so I worked with one of my best friends down there at Sutter & Nugent and we got it rented in 3 weeks.