First Purchase Done... Onto the Next!

[Erwin Miciano]

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $1,100,000
Cash invested: $10,000

Owner Occupied Triplex in San Diego

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

I wanted to start and put all the knowledge to the test. Just a year before I was deployed in Japan. I spent a lot of my free time on thinking on how will I take my finances to the next level. Found BP and I learned as much as I could. Brandon Turner talks a lot about the stack, so I knew I just had to get my foot in the door.

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

Our amazing real estate agent found exactly what we were looking for!
It took some work to find someone like him, but when we found out that multi-families were his niche and after speaking to him, he was our rockstar.
He had the experience, the confidence and charisma to help us get our offer accepted.
My wife and I also just had finished the book, Never Splitting the Difference by Chris Voss the week we started negotiating.

How did you finance this deal?

We financed through a VA Loan.
Instead of just buying a SFR, my wife and I decided we should go big since it was eventually our plan to own one. Granted it took a lot of research to know all of our limitations when it comes to financing with a VA.
We put 10k for earnest.
We were paid about 12k at closing.
Really the only money going in is our liability to the mortgage and the rehabs.

How did you add value to the deal?

Right now we are going through our rehab stage. Just from the listing, we knew that my wife and I could add value with minor cosmetic repairs and a little bit of a design touch.

What was the outcome?

The triplex is fully occupied and our mortgage liability is equal to the amount we were paying in rent. The units still have a lot potential improvements to eventually increase rent and we love the location we are in.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

It is almost countless with this being our first one. We are still learning and we are excited about it.

-Never be afraid to lowball if your numbers make sense. It’s all a numbers game.
-Gather all the information you can. Keep the awkward silence so the sellers will feel the need to keep talking.
-Research as you go, there will always be more to your advantage with more knowledge.