My First Investment!

[Laura Bowler]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $30,000
Cash invested: $30,000

Purchased single family home with section 8 tenant occupied. Need about $3-5K in repairs, and is now functionally smoothly (and is up to code!)

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

Really wanted to get out there and start investing! Deal made a lot of sense in terms of cash flow, but the house price was also quite low (so I wasn't worried about the market crashing) and we had the cash on hand.

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

Found it online and worked with a realtor to get the showing. Started with an offer 10% under asking price and it was immediately accepted.

How did you finance this deal?

Cash

What was the outcome?

Property took about 6 months to fix up with a tenant in place and initially we had to invest a bit more to get it up to code. Everything is fixed now, and property has been smoothly operating for a month. Based on last six months, cash flow will be around $300 a month, and will increase if we are able to successfully negotiate a section 8 rent increase (in progress).

Lessons learned? Challenges?

It's hard to fix a property up with a full time job AND a tenant in place. We know better what to look for, and learned first hand all the things needed to pass the Inkster city inspection.

[Laura Bowler]

Thanks! It's located in Inkster MI. Definitely a lower income market, but I'm in the Michigan area, so it was a great place to get started close to home (low house prices, good rental community, solid returns).