Crazy Roller Coaster Ride Long Distance Cleveland Duplex

[Kathy Argento]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $10,500

Cash invested: $27,000

Sale price: $65,000

This duplex was originally going to be a flip but with a rental back up strategy. My contractor fixed it up for me so I could flip it and then tried to sell it. It was on the market for 2 months and I could not sell it so I decided to rent it out. Long story, but city of Cleveland said it needed lead remediation and taking seller to court to recoup some of that and in the end I sold the home for a very nice profit, even though the lead remediation cost me a large chunk, I still came out ahead.

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

It was a duplex that was being sold way under value, so I had 2 potential money-making strategies for this property

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

Believe it or not, I found it on Cleveland's Craigslist. A wholesaler was advertising it. Very risky but I did all the necessary homework, including making sure i had a solid couple of trustable contacts and contractors lined up BEFORE buying it. It was such a good price, I did not negotiate anything. I paid the advertised price of $10,500. The wholesaler made $3,000.

How did you finance this deal?

paid cash

How did you add value to the deal?

I paid $9,000 to fix it up, rental quality.  rented it out for a few years. Later, had to remediate the lead issue, so I paid another $16,000 to do that.

What was the outcome?

I sold it and did pretty well, profit-wise!