My First property | Birmingham, Alabama

[Samuel Santos Borges]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $75,000
Cash invested: $17,000

4401 41st Pl N, Birmingham, AL 35217
My first investment property. I spent a lot of money on inspections, probably in the thousands before I got a property to close. This was the one that finally passed inspection. This was nowhere near as easy as I wanted it to be. Im a student with an F1 visa in the United States, problems started to arise with the lender. It seemed as though we would never close on the house, however; we finally closed on Friday, January 26th. Unfortunately the house is already rented out to a tenant with a lease that goes until august, the tenant is paying $730/month. The interest rate for this loan ended up being a little higher than we had expected. The plan is to wait out until August when their lease end, and either negotiate with them a higher lease or find a new tenant to replace them, we want to implement the house in the Section 8 program. I am expecting after August to have this house cash flowing me, $400 - $600.

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

This was in the sweet spot that I want to buy in. Single family in between the range of $60,000 to $90,000. The house was in a good neighborhood with a good expected FMR.

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

I found the deal through Realtor.com, at first I had sent an offer for $70,000. The final offer that got agreed upon ended up being $75,000 with the seller and I splitting an entire replacement of the roof 50/50 and the seller also putting $5,000 towards the closing costs.

How did you finance this deal?

The deal was financed through a DSCR Loan.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

First lesson learned was not to use the lender I used. Also while buying properties with a tenant already in place might look like a safer option since it already has someone with a history of payments, it might be a more profitable option to market the property yourself so you can get that Rent closer to FMR as possible. Browsing other lenders and knowing the I.R beforehand is also crucial.