A renovation that took a little longer than expected!

[Justin Long]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Minneapolis.

Purchase price: $147,000
Cash invested: $20,000

First house I bought myself. Thought I'd live in it a few years a fix it up to flip it. Turns out I had a lot to learn. 14 years later I've gotten married, had two kids and moved out. It's been a great rental since then. I would eventually like to tear it down and build a multi-family on the oversized lot instead of the tiny 1 bedroom house!

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

Needed a place to live and this was the cheapest thing that wasn't falling down at the time

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

Brother-in-law was a real estate agent... I didn't do a good job of negotiation with the bank, but it was a red hot market and this was one of the cheaper houses on the market.

How did you finance this deal?

100% financed with stated income loan! Those were the days...

How did you add value to the deal?

Renovated the whole house.... floors, ceilings, walls, plumbing, electrical.... learned a lot

What was the outcome?

Learned how to do a lot of things and now I have a cash flowing property

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Learned how to sheetrock, tile, install hard wood floors and floating floors, roots in your sewer lines suck, homes built back in the day can have quite a few surprises!

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

Yes, my brother-in-law, Coley Murphy... but now I'm an agent, so I guess I'd recommend myself!