1st time landlord

[Eric Maxwell]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $140,000
Cash invested: $22,000
Sale price: $180,000

Moratorium expired a few months before closing and I inherited 2 tenants couldn’t get into the property for 3 months!

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

It was the same price as the 1st property I bought except twice the size and two of everything.

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

I hunted for 9 months

How did you finance this deal?

Same broker team i used for the 1st one.

How did you add value to the deal?

I updated the electrical, painted everything, and “cleaned the property up nicely” exterior and interior.

What was the outcome?

It was kind of a bad spot in my life at the time. I didn’t really enjoy any part of being a landlord. I was extremely humbled by people and their excuses when it comes to paying rent on time. I’ve never actually been legally owed money before so I was green on how to handle things while trying to be understanding and respecting other lifestyles and career choices.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Inherited tenant really left me feeling like I should’ve bought it wmpty. I wasn’t prepared to lose so much of my savings as carrying cost basically I paid for the tenants to live there for 3 months + my own living expenses in that time.

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

My mortgage brokers but I’m not ready to reveal them just yet.