First investment property

[Stephanie Bell]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $241,000

This is a 3/3 duplex located in a B/C neighbourhood in Buffalo, NY. Almost turnkey, recently flipped by seller.

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

Since we're investing out of state (out of country), and it's our first deal, we were looking for something that didn't require much work up front. This means lower returns, of course, but we're not currently prepared to oversee a major reno from afar. We were also looking for a location that would attract decent tenants but still be affordable.

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

We worked with an investor-focused realtor and went through the usual processes for putting in an offer. There was no offer date (many of the other properties we were looking at had offer dates), but there were three offers on the table at the time that ours went in. We chose an offer price based on comparable properties in the area and offered a little bit over asking.

How did you finance this deal?

We accessed standard financing. The particulars are a little but more complex, being Canadians investing in the US for the first time. We had no credit history in the US so most typical lenders wouldn't work. We used a Canada-based lender with a presence in the US and a lending program geared towards Canadians purchasing property in the US. Put 25% down.