My First Rental Purchase in 2013, FL

[Shuai Zeng]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in St Petersburg.

Purchase price: $68,000
Cash invested: $28,000

Bought my First Rental when I first started thinking about investing the extra cash I got around in 2013. Drove to FL after requesting work off for 2 week, and picked a house that I never went in and had that feeling I should buy it and made a offer.

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

Wanted to get into Real Estate, and thought I should buy a rental to get some extra income.

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

Found it on Zillow, and had a agent I was working with made a offer 3K higher than asking price.

How did you finance this deal?

Me and my wife had about 12-14K saved up, and I had a inheritance from my father about 15K to put as down. Not as rental mortgage, but as Vacation home at the time.

What was the outcome?

Rented out, did not start out as cash flow much. But since area eventually got better, better cash flow and appreciation of the house went up.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Rental can become a major PITA when you are out of states, but when you have good property management that are willing to work with you everything goes smooth.

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

No.