the Accidental investor

[Dave Silva]

Three years ago i stopped to look at a waterfront house in Eastern NC. It was a Homepath / "first look" deal for $104K. Needed a roof, deck and siding. there was water inside and interior floor damge but I really loved it. A builder friend said we could get it back in shape for about $25k. I pulled $20k form my TSP (federal 401k) and we got a renovation loan. It was not until closing that i learned there would be no payments for six months as the credit union treated it like a building loan. Everything went pretty well. the house is gorgious, we moved in, it was great. But the tenants we had in our old house pulled out with no warning a couple weekes before Christmas. We were still too stretched from the reno to carry the loss and the commute had been a burden so we moved back to our old house. (40 miles apart) The waterfront house now rents for $450 over the mortgage. A realtor put it's value at $180K. So in the end i have some decent equity and cash flow and other than the stress of moving twice, i really had a blast.

we've since decide the waterfront house is in the wrong place for our family and we really need a subdivision with safe quiet streets for our two little boys.

I'm about five years from retiring from the federal govt and I'm looking for flexible income in the future.  I want to kill myself in the winter and have some free time in the summer (wife is a teacher) to get the most time with my boys.

Today we are bidding on a HUBZU (ocwen) house and hopefully we'll get the subdivision house my family wants. But I'm just thinking ill have TWO good rentals and after the reno I'll have some more equity to augm my retirement.

Over the next few years i'll try to get some more deals. Maybe try to flip something instead of rentals. 

Ultimately the goal is to replace about $40-60k in anual income working full time on this after I retire from the government.

Looking forward educating myself and hearing form others with simallar stories