Local Bed and Breakfast

[Colleen Carnahan]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Chandler.

We run a small Bed and Breakfast in the Chandler, AZ area. www.countryhavenretreat.com

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

We have been REI for about a decade, focusing primarily on long-term rentals. We attended a meet-up group that introduced us to this type of renting and saw the financial benefits.

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

We found this deal through traditional means, through the MLS and our realtor. It was a standard home purchase.

How did you finance this deal?

We financed with our own money.

How did you add value to the deal?

We added value by converting the spare bedrooms into rental vacation rental rooms.

What was the outcome?

We have been in operations for a little over a year, our business is steadily growing and has been increasingly successful.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

It was a rough start due to issues with the house. Lessons learned, double check all the information entered into real-estate transaction forms for accurate information. One clerical error that we didn't think to look for or check on ended up costing us almost $20k in additional repairs and delayed our opening by 6 mo.