Took the plunge - Townhouse in Raleigh

[Larry Zucker]

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment in Raleigh.

Purchase price: $195,000
Cash invested: $40,000

First investment. Purchased townhouse with renter already in it. Has HOA which covers larger expenses like roof and siding, plus maintains property. Self-managed. Community pool included.

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

This type of deal has low maintenance since the HOA covers big ticket exterior items and it had an existing good tenant which meant immediate cash flow at closing.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional financing was used for this deal.

[Jiri B.]

Good for you @Larry Zucker. First property is usually the hardest..

But be careful about your assumption that HOA pays for the roof / siding / any large items.. You pay and the other homeowners pay for that. So unless they have ton of money in reservers and roofs needs to be replaced, they will just do a special assessment and send the bill to the homeowners. So here in Raleigh, unless you pay hundreds of dollars on HOA every months, the chances are, they won't have the money for those repairs (they also send annual statement so you can get a feel from that as well what their expenses are). So it is extremely common to do special assessments for roofs, decks, sidings, roads (if private) etc.. Just something to keep in mind.