First Investiment Property

[Kevin Seiler]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $162,740
Cash invested: $42,083

This is a duplex.

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

My daughter recently moved to Lawrence to attend KU. The market is significantly cheaper than Denver and I was able to purchase a duplex at a reasonable price. Also, being that Lawrence is home to two universities, the rental market is fairly stable.

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

The realtor I was working with found it. It was a for sale by owner.

How did you finance this deal?

Standard 20% down - bank financed.

How did you add value to the deal?

I discovered some rental calculators on-line (not biggerpockets) and ran the numbers.

What was the outcome?

I was slow to get it rented because I chose the wrong manager. I fired her after two months and found one I'm fairly happy with and they got one unit rented within 30 days and the second within 60.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The property was owned and lived in by a mother and daughter. So there was no income until renters were secured. The realtor I worked with also manages property - to provide management services in KS one has to be a licensed realtor. She did well with the sale but I had my reservations about property management.

Start up expenses have been more than I expected. The property had some issue to be addressed and I had to pay twice for the some work.