First ever RE Investment... Didn't even know what I had:)

[Michael Garrett]

Investment Info:

Other fix & flip investment in Palm Beach Gardens.

Purchase price: $109,000
Cash invested: $11,000
Sale price: $185,000

Originally lived in the home with my fiance. We were able to save money and buy a house. We kept the condo and rented it out for a few years and had minimal success. We got burned by our second year of tenants and a whole mess of HOA headaches. We ended up selling for a sizable profit, plus the sale of our other house to buy our dream home.

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

100%... minus the HOA headaches of course

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

I was renting the place prior to buying. I kept being a bug in my landlords ear. I guess it was essentially cold calling and I didn't realize. He eventually sold to me because he was tired and didn't want to landlord anymore.

How did you finance this deal?

Wedding present and 20% down.

How did you add value to the deal?

Rehabbed the entire house flooring and remodeled the kitchen. All on my own. Learned a lot.

What was the outcome?

Final outcome was we walked away with about 60K which we paid down a lot of debt and held the money until we sold the current house to buy our dream house. A little more than we needed but awesome. We did rent it for a few years and I didn't manage the money very well.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We got seriously burned on the sale because of the capital gains. When we moved out of hte condo it was about 2 months shy of two years which would have saved us about 12K!! FL law states that you can keep all gains from a primary residence if you lived there for 2+ years. Bought in April of 14' and moved into a house in Feb of 16'. Now I know! Also, tenants. Get good tenants and don't be overly understanding. Empathetic, but not too much. Its a business.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Yeah. Neeraj Mahani. RE Agent. Bobby Bashwiner. Broker