Gas Station conversion to money-making Duplex

[Mark Evants]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $59,000
Cash invested: $15,000

Converted a quick stop gas station to a 1980 sq ft duplex with no money down. Decided to upgrade the property on the finishing stage and invested 15k of my own on top my original money from the comstruction loan. This paid off by being able to add about $150 per month to the gross rents. even though I didn’t like investing that money and had not planned on it, I would do it again because it is paid off nicely. We are holding this for retirement.

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

Looking for a house for my son and his wife and stumbled in this property that had been on the market for 1.3 years.

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

Saw a sign and searched county records to see it was out of state owners (brothers from 2 states) that had inherited it...they were willing to discount the purchase price quite a bit. After inspection went back and asked for another 5K reduction from other things we found wrong on the report.

How did you finance this deal?

Construction loan and no money down...money ar closingbto fix property.

How did you add value to the deal?

Added a bath, contemporary colors and finishes, finished out a storage area into a heater and cooled bonus room.

What was the outcome?

Rents were over 20% over our original projections.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Holding expenses add up. Redoing popcorn ceilings is time consuming and hard!

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

I recommend Rivertown Bank and Ruby Rawls (realtor).