First Deal was New Construction

[April Childers]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence other investment.

Purchase price: $65,000
Cash invested: $97,000
Sale price: $243,500

My husband and I bought a two acre lot with the intention of splitting the lot and building a house on each one. While we were in the process of building the first house our daughter and son-in-law moved down from Kansas City and after searching for homes asked very nicely if they could buy the second lot because they could not find anything they really liked. Besides only building one house we considered it to be a great experience and would not hesitate to do it again. We were lucky to find an outstanding contractor who was a joy to work with. We did have some hiccups along the way, I found out that surveyors are very overworked in our area and in some cases not in any hurry. I also found out that no matter what the real estate agent tells you it is still your deal and you are the one that needs to do your due diligence and now I even have a clue of what that means. During the process I decided to get my real estate licenses so I was able to list it myself and four days later I had two offers. Overall, I would not hesitate to do it again but I can't imagine ever doing it with a different contractor.

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

I have always wanted to get into real estate and the new home market in our area is amazing. My real estate agent found a nice lot in a fantastic area.

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

I found it through a real estate agent who had sold property for us before. The property was listed for $75,000, we offered $60k and settled on $65k.

How did you finance this deal?

We paid cash, taking some money out of some investments.

How did you add value to the deal?

We built a house on the lot and used nice finishes.

What was the outcome?

We sold the house in four days.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Getting the land surveyed was a challenge and after waiting we ended up using the survey on file because the setback had changed and out new survey showed our lots to be .94 of an acre. Also they had to be an acre because the land was zoned agricultural...fun times but it all worked out.