How we live in a $300K+ home for only $600/month...

[Ashley St. Gelais]

So I became obsessed with rental producing properties...

When we were looking for a long term home for our family in 2010, I stubbornly insisted that we focus on duplexes or single family homes with accessory apartments.

Single families with accessories was specifically what I wanted to target because of the lending programs that allow only 5% down as opposed to 20-25% down.

We found this home in Essex Junction.  It was in foreclosure and needed a little bit of work.  So my handy husband and I bought it up.  Made small improvements like paint, added a huge deck for the apartment over the garage and fixed the small issues that the city had with the property, like removing a strip of pavement that was 1' too wide.  (Picky I know, but we did what we had to in order to be compliant.)

We initially got a loan for 30 years, then refinanced it to a 20 year loan when the rates were really low in 2012.  Currently our PITI (principal, interest, taxes and insurance payment) totals just under $1,800/month.  Our apartment over the garage rents for $1,200.

So we 'are on the hook' for $600/month plus our own utilities...

And even better, we believe that if we ever wanted to rent out our side of the house, the property could cash flow positive about $1,000/month.

Lastly, because we got this at a great price and our improvements also increased the value, we were able to get a HELOC (home equity line of credit) against the home for $44K which was enough to fund our next multi family investment in Burlington.

Not so shabby.  How could a situation like this change your life?