The Gathering Place of Island Park

[David A Walgren]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Martinsville.

Purchase price: $189,000
Cash invested: $60,000
Sale price: $475,000

3200 sq ft SFR needed extensive remodeling. Put in new floors, tile, bathroom, walls, paint, drywall, fixrtures, etc. Ran as an STR until we sold it in 2018.

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

We bought it as place for family gathering for our large family. After running a pro forma, we realized it would generate a positive cash flow as an STR. With it being 20 mins from Yellowstone National Park and loving the area ourselves, it was a no-brainer.

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

Loved the area so we drove around neighborhoods until we found something suitable. This deal was on the MLS so we negotiated through a Realtor and paid about $10k less than the asking price.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Rehad of every room. New tile, new bathrooms, paint interior and exterior, added a large deck, added a hot tub area, new interior and exterior trim, painted kitchen cabinets, new carpet, garage conversion into mud room, bedroom and bathroom, new fixtures throughout.

What was the outcome?

Very successful as and STR for vacationers to Yellowstone and family reunion purposes. We sold after moving out of the area and wanted to put our time in different location

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Don't try and fo the cheap route. More expensive will always pay off in the end. We learned so much about running a vacation rental in a hot tourist location, especially what makes a well stocked vacation rental and what renters are looking for. We build. our own website and managed everything ourselves. Sadly we learned that you cannot just trust house keepers etc to do things properly, that you need to have reliable local management.