Contemplating Selling our first Buy and Hold

[Robert Fulton]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Little Elm.

Purchase price: $198,000
Cash invested: $55,000

This is a nice little 3/2 property in a good neighborhood. Ive been very lucky in that we got good tenants, who pay on-time and the husband is very handy. They're looking to buy their own house now and I have to find new renters. Ill be bumping the rent $25/mo.

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

I bought it as a "pocket listing" (thinking I was getting a deal), but after diving deeper into how to grow my portfolio, Im not so sure I made the right call. This property is tying up valuable cash and has increased 20% in the last year. My agent thinks we can get $240k for it.

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

My neighbor, at the time, was a new agent and knew I had just sold my company and was looking to buy an investment property. He said he had a listing that hadn't hit market and that it was a good deal. They set a hard price at $198K and thought they could get much more if it hit market (and I believe they could have). North Texas has been a hot market over the last few years, and, while not a bad property to own, I was certainly NOT buying it wholesale.

How did you finance this deal?

I put up 25% cash out of my own pocket and went with a conventional 30 year for the rest.

How did you add value to the deal?

I had the cash and a background in construction, so I GC'd the project and/or did all the upgrades myself.

What was the outcome?

Im currently cash-flowing about $430/mo, it has about $40k in equity. If I sell it, Ill pay about 10% in closing costs and realtor fees ($24k), getting back my original $55k and will net $18k on the equity.
My question is: could this money be better served by purchasing at a lower entry point (ARV to Purchase-wise) and still make me the same amount of cash-flow? I have another $100k to play with, as well as investors who are looking to partner, so I could feasibly keep this one and do another