1st property that I ever purchased

[Christian Rafael Gongora]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $289,000
Cash invested: $4,000

12535 Corona Borealis was the first home I ever purchased and it was the start to my real estate investing journey. I was serving overseas with my wife for 2 years and prior to coming back to America, we decided we wanted to own rather than rent.

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

My wife's father, Keith Andrews, introduced the idea of real estate investing to us. Although my wife did not care for the idea of investing, I saw it as an opportunity to begin the journey of escaping the rat race. Keith Andrews, who is my mentor, is an extremely successful realtor/investor who has been very successful with his 11+ properties through the BRRRR strategy. But he informed us to just use our VA loan first and get a piece of real estate with 0 money down.

How did you finance this deal?

I utilized the VA loan

What was the outcome?

We ended up acquiring the property and living in it for 12 months before moving to our 2nd home that we purchased.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The biggest lesson we learned was that just owning a piece of real estate does not equate to a good purchase. Although I will forever love the memories that I shared with my wife in our first home… I will always regret not listening to myself instead of my wife and buying a 4plex to start. But it was a learning experience and that “bad” investment, shaped my mind for the better for the rest of my journey.