I’ve been a member of BP for about a year and joined after accidentally stumbling onto a podcast before boarding a plane in late July 2017. Like others, I immediately got hooked and started listening to as my podcasts as I could (walking to work, on the train, in the car, etc.). Once I got comfortable with analyzing deals and had a solid knowledge base from the forums, webinars, @Brandon Turner's "The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing" and @David Greene's "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" books, I hooked up with an agent in St. Louis. I chose STL as it has many working class areas where rents remain at sustainable levels to cash flow.

As our first investment, I looked for SFH that required minor repairs to get rent ready. As we toured selected homes that fit our investment criteria (3BR/1Bth @ $200/mth cash flow and 12% cash on cash), we walked into a cute and renovated home and noticed that we could only count 2 bedrooms! Additionally, the MLS listing reported there were new ceiling fans in each of the rooms but there weren't any! We called the listing agent and let them know of the error…but just to be sure, I went outside and checked the address on the home – it turned out WE WERE IN THE WRONG HOUSE! This was another house that happened to be on sale with a keybox that was 4 doors down from the house we were supposed to be at!

After looking at all the other houses on our list, we kept thinking about the house that we accidentally walked into. It had been empty since it was purchased in 2017 as the owner purchased the home for his father and made updates (new HVAC/water heater, bathroom fixtures, flooring, kitchen, also a new roof was put on in April due to hail damage). Unfortunately, his father’s health deteriorated and instead moved into an assisted living facility. Asking price for a 2BR was a bit too high based on comp rents to get to our investment parameters but since the owner had no plans to use the property, I offered his purchase price in 2017 + 6% (commissions to agents) + $1,000 (assumed deductible on insurance for new roof), effectively getting a turnkey property without paying for the updates. We agreed on a few grand more and went into contract! We closed as scheduled and had a renter paying two and a half times our mortgage with a 795 FICO signed to a lease in 7 days. As we were not planning on even looking at this home, we nicknamed this our ‘Serendipity House’.

After a little over a month of owning and making sure there were no surprises, our BP calculator outputs have held up: $220 monthly cash flow after reserves @ 12.9% COCROI. Thanks to everyone on BP for the info and help! Currently looking at some fixer-upper deals and small multi-families for our next investment.

The “Serendipity” House – 1st Investment Property Purchased

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