College Area Condo, should have held onto it longer

[Alan M.]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $332,000
Cash invested: $33,000
Sale price: $381,000

Not my best deal, but I ended up with not very good tenants and the cash flow (after a $430 condo fee) wasn't worth it to keep it around. Now (2019) it's worth $580k but, without selling it, I wouldn't have been able to afford my now primary residence.

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

I needed a place to live and wanted to "house hack" while having a roommate pay down the mortgage with me.

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

Dumbly...real estate agent showed it to me, I liked it, we offered list, and then got bid up to $335k, only to have some givebacks in the inspection to save a little bit of money.

How did you finance this deal?

15% down, 85% LTV with PMI

How did you add value to the deal?

Renovated the kitchen with stock cabinets, put in hard wood floors, painted everything.

What was the outcome?

Should have held it another 2-3 years, oh well.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Don't sell during a down market...just hold onto it and suck it up.