Horror investment - The nightmare came true

[Bea B.]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $35,000
Cash invested: $35,000
Sale price: $45,000

My first investment turned out to be a nightmare of every REI. My first tenant ever was a disabled lady which did not bother to pay rent so I had to pay a lot to an attorney who is not able to find her as she disappeared. She let my newly rehabbed flat in a catastrophic state. After she officially left without giving my keys back to a property manager she returned here and there to use my apartment illegally so now the police is involved, the cord case is coming, i lost so much money. Very high charges, taxes, attorneys, sleepless nights. It was a low cost international investment. Little heavy stuff to start with but it has changed me a lot and I mastered my diplomacy and communication for a higher level. I do not recommend to start with a low cost high return promising investment. If I can redo all, I would make a Booking.com short therm apartment, smaller but in a good quarter. Anyway, it was fun and I enjoy the ride. I bought another apartment (in another state, because why to make things easy if we can do them complicated) and this one brought me 10k in one year just because of the price of the apartments at market went up, so lost here, won there. I am selling the both and restarting again. Not much loss. I am grateful for the experience. *Sorry for my english

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

I thought I would male a little monthly cashflow as a single unemployed homeschooling mum with my small budget.

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

I found it at the internet but I arrived to negotiate just 4k which I had to pay on taxes anyway.

How did you finance this deal?

Cash

How did you add value to the deal?

I did a rehab for 10k

What was the outcome?

Horror, an absolute nightmare for a newbie

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Lessons learned, sleepless nights experiences, all the challenges you can imagine from the horrible neighbors, bad neighborhood, police involved, criminal tenants, destroyed apartment, useless property managers, rents not payed, horrible taxes and charges, slow attorney, no results, hardships while the sale.

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

No recommendations from me, I have a property in France and in Slovakia anyway so not helpful.