My First House Hack and First Deal

[Jared D. Lambrecht]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $235,000
Cash invested: $10,000

My first house hack

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

My parents let me stay with them after college so I could get a down payment for my first house, so I decided that I would use that money to make my first house a duplex to 1. cut down my mortgage payment and 2. start building a portfolio of rental properties to compliment my other retirement accounts.

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

Just through using my real estate agent and I followed her advice on what to do. The one thing that needed to be worked out was the installation of a radon mitigation system because the tests from the property inspector showed we were way over the EPA guidelines for that, and I didn't want to live in a place that had a carcinogen leaking into the house.

How did you finance this deal?

My local bank helped me get a 3.5% down FHA loan.

What was the outcome?

I have now moved out of this property and have both sides rented. I am losing cash every month, but over time, my property manager and I will raise rates to start to cash flow.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

My very first deal! Obviously this is going to be the deal with the most lessons learned, and for me, I had never even bought a house before so I had lots to learn.

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

My real estate agent, Lanissa Fortner, was extremely valuable to help a first timer like myself. She was straight up and honest with me and even pushed me away from deals she thought were not what I was looking for. I plan on working with her again when I am ready to put together my second deal.