Bought a single screen theater in a small town and flipped it a year later for 50x. A pure luck play from a Craigslist Ad resulted in my very low offer being accepted. To be fair, the theater was in very bad condition, and low estimate repairs ran around $100k-$150k. I owe my real estate investing career to the gentleman who sold me the theater, and the gentleman who offered to buy it a year later.

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

I saw this old theater while passing through a small town one weekend. It was of interest to me because I had just wrapped shooting an ultra-ultra low, no budget movie and had this wild idea that maybe I could get this theater, or another small town theater, to show my movie. Then I could claim theatrical distribution to hype up my little movie (incomplete to this day, btw. And it sucks, but the acting was great!)

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

I found this deal on craigslist after someone tipped me off to some oil activity going on in the region. They encouraged me to buy some mineral rights, if I could find some. A quick craigslist search for mineral rights brought up this Single Screen theater for sale. I could hardly believe it was the same one I had noticed in passing 1-2 years prior. Since I couldn't afford the asking price, I offered what I could afford. It was accepted. I bought the theater along with the mineral rights.

How did you finance this deal?

This was an all cash deal. Please keep in mind that when I say all cash deal for any of my deals, we are not talking much. This deal was so low that those familiar with it consider it to be the best once in a lifetime deal they've ever heard of.

How did you add value to the deal?

No work was done to the theater, but I did use the marquee to advertise my website. The heavy traffic through this main street downtown provided for a healthy website ranking at the time. Consider this for any tear-down property with heavy traffic.

What was the outcome?

A year later I was contacted by a gentleman who purchased the next door adjoining building. He offered to buy it cash. It was sold for a large down payment, and I carried the note for the balance. I still own the mineral rights.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

This was my first deal and I was embarrassed to offer what I did. My offer was accepted. I figured that the mineral rights that came with it would be worth what I offered. When I consulted with friends and family, they discouraged me from buying because the building was a liability. They had a point, but you gotta know in your gut when you've got a winner. This winning grand slam provided capital to launch my real estate investing career.

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

The purchase I made was between the seller and I, only. No title insurance, no closing, just meet up with cash and sign everything over. The buyer I sold it to was a licensed real estate agent, but his main gig was construction.