Chesapeake Beach, MD, first owner

[Kimberly Lepine]

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment in Chesapeake Beach.

We purchased this home new with 25% down in the fall of 2007. We rode it all the way down through the Great Recession and up through the recent economic expansion. Our plan is to hold it until we can no longer take depreciation. It is a stacked townhome, 2600 square feet, in an excellent public school district. It is surrounded by a wide variety of employers, private, public, and military, and is reasonably commutable to DC and Annapolis, MD.

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

We already had properties closer to DC in less well-reputed school districts, so we wanted to have one in a good school district, as we thought that the management experience would be somewhat different. It has! Not easier- just different.

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

Direct from the builder

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional, 25% down

How did you add value to the deal?

As it was new, we have not had huge expenditures.

What was the outcome?

We still own it.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

A manager has to enforce vacancy in a good school district with tight supply and readily available jobs. It's a good problem to have, but still an issue to manage.