Rural Duplex Near New Castle, PA

[Berkley Bossard]

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $163,000
Cash invested: $584.16

Side by side duplex 3 miles from shopping center, and 1 mile from the interstate. I will be moving into one unit by the end of March, 2020 and plan to have the second side rented by Jun 2020. The property also has a 30x32 detached garage with 12 foot ceilings with a built in car lift, natural gas heat, air conditioning, and an unused, but functional water line. I am also looking for options to use the garage for additional source of income once I move out of the property.

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

I've been wanting to get into real estate investing for a few years. This property gave me that opportunity to live a lifestyle I want, (Rural with room to play with grown up toys) as well as reducing my living expenses to almost $0.

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

I found it on Zillow. Reached out to a local agent, and after a two month process to get into the property, made an offer. Due to the long listing time, I was able to work out a fair, but greatly reduced price.

How did you finance this deal?

100% financing through a VA loan, and a 4.5% sellers assist.

How did you add value to the deal?

The detached garage is 964 sq feet, I am looking into options to eventually convert this to a third unit.

What was the outcome?

Signed the closing paperwork today!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The house had been on the market for over 500 days by the time I was able to view the property. The listing agent didn't have a lock box installed, and the previous tenants took the keys with them and turned off the utilities when they left the property. The owner also lived in Florida and didn't know the tenant had left. My agent had to get permission to break through the locks and replace them from the listing agent in order to show me the house after our second attempt to look at the place in a month.

I also had a very tight timeline to work with. I travel a lot for my 9-5 job, and also had my Annual Training for the Navy Reserves scheduled for this month. The appraiser for the VA loan found a few repairs, and I was unable to close at the end of January like I originally planned. My agent ended up completing the repairs on his own in my absence, and the closing company worked with me emailing me all of the closing documents so I could sign everything while in Hawaii in order to make the deadline set by the lender.

This is my only deal so far, but I’m confident that without my agent saving the deal multiple times, I would not have been able to keep this deal rolling.