Everyone told me not to, but I did it anyways.

[Ben Josephson]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $216,000
Cash invested: $10,000
Sale price: $330,000

I bought this 4 family with 10k down and was able to live in one unit while renting out the other 3. By renting 3 units this paid for all of the mortgage and any other expenses I had and i was still able to cashflow about $850 a month while working a full time job. This enabled me to buy a single family residence 1 year later and then rent out the 4th unit which then paid for both of my mortgages. I ended up selling this property in the middle of 2022.

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

Listening to the Bigger Pockets podcast!!!

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

I found this deal working with a local real estate agent who is actually the wife of a person I worked with for 13 years.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional financing with 5% down. I put a little over 10K into the deal

How did you add value to the deal?

I fixed issues that popped up and just re painted some of the outside. Other than that the value in the deal was mostly through appreciation in the market.

What was the outcome?

I turned 10K into 115K in just 2 years and also got a lot of experience being a landlord and managing tenants. The experience I gained was worth so much more!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

One lesson I learned the hard way is always keep an eye on your water meter especially if you are paying for water as the landlord.

I had one tenant not tell me her water was running on her toilet for months and when I got the next water bill it went from $800-$900 every quarter and jumped up to $3648 for one quarter.

From now on I will always check the water meter weekly if not daily.

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

I worked with Jaclyn Smith who works out of Massachusetts and CT. She helped me buy both my deals and also sell one of them. She is the best!