First Full Business Cycle Completed!

[Calvin Watkins]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Columbus.

Purchase price: $70,000
Cash invested: $3,600
Sale price: $196,000

The one that started it all, the OG, sold to scale up. This was my first ever home purchase that was used as my personal residence before being leveraged to get a new home. After moving out this was used as a rental to two different tenants one of which ended up being the end buyer.

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

This investment changed my monthly living expense from $800 a month total for rent to $820 total a month for a mortgage. It took a lot of work to get it in to good living condition but it definitely catapulted me to keep buying more units and scaling up.

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

This deal was found on Zillow with the same pictures that are still on there at the time of this posting. It was a freshly emptied horder house so even though not a lot of items left strewn about it was neglected from maintenance and cleaning.

How did you finance this deal?

Bank Financed for the mortgage and personally paid for renovations as I earned money from my W-2.

How did you add value to the deal?

Value was added by fully gutting the unit and getting updated Electrical, Plumbing, and a Cosmetic Overhaul.

What was the outcome?

5 year investment with all in investment of $105,000 over the first two years as work was done on it and I lived there. Final sale of $196,000.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Being brand new to the investment world is hard but over 3 months of late nights working on the house and listening to the BP Podcast it flys by. I literally invested in my backyard as the house was behind the apartment complex I was living in at the time. The biggest lesson I learned is that delaying your gratification of cool things is a massive help to get real estate. I sold my dream car because the different in the payment is what got me qualified for this home.

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

I worked with Thomas Maurer and would definitely recommend him. He is actually the reason I was able to close as he negotiated with the seller's agent to close the deal as I was not the highest but I was the best offer with the highest chance to close.