First Purchase to Begin the Journey

[Calvin Watkins]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $70,000
Cash invested: $3,600

Currently house hacking this location with my brother and his new wife. Currently in the process of getting a HELOC opened from the renovation, more of a live in flip scenario.

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

It was a block from where I was renting and was from a wholesaler. All in all it was pretty cheap for the area and it is located in a good school district with a lot of investment coming to the area.

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

Found this deal on Zillow as I could qualify for traditional finance but couldn't go to Auction which is my strategy overall. Negotiations went fairly quickly as a lot of places in this area are being bought up with cash. The listing agent suggested to the wholesaler to go under contract with me because of my family's construction background. I was not the highest offer but he was confident I wouldn't back out of the deal when I saw there was work needed to be done.

How did you finance this deal?

5 Year ARM Mortgage

How did you add value to the deal?

Completely gutted the house except for the central wall in the kitchen. The other additions or changes are as follows;

All new flooring throughout the house snap down hardwood with tile in the bathrooms.
All new plumbing throughout the house.
Added one bathroom and renovated second bathroom with tile shower and tub.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We learned that it was far easier to hire out drywall versus doing it on our own. Our skill set is in plumbing, framing and flooring which is where we will be focusing on our future flips/ buy and holds.