First house hack (before I knew it was called that)

[Scott Brewster]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence other investment.

Purchase price: $134,500
Sale price: $190,000

First property purchased while stationed in Norfolk with my VA loan. Renovated it and house hacked it had 4 rooms rented out the entire 8 years I lived in Norfolk. Saved a ton of money and made some good capital gains after 8 years!

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

The market was still very low from the 2008 recession and I had a killer opportunity to utilize my first time home buyers program + a VA Loan so I just had to jump.

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

Hindsight I probably could have got a better deal on it but the market was so low and slow at that time I didn't really think about it. No money down and got a lot of money back through Obama's first time home buyers package to stimulate the Real Estate economy.

How did you finance this deal?

VA Loan 0% down

How did you add value to the deal?

Over the 8 years I lived in it I rented each room out so my Navy friends were happy because they were saving housing allowance money while I was happy because I didn't have any bills.

What was the outcome?

Stayed here for 8 years and sold it to my roommate who wanted to start a family and I wanted to move to the West Coast so it worked out quite nicely.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Lessons learned, don't ask a realtor to help you if you found a buyer yourself. That costed a lot of money but I was so busy transferring out of the military and organizing my move to the West coast that I didn't want to deal with it. $12,000 laziness decision.

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

I did and she is still a great friend of mine, very motivated and knows the area well. PM me for her info.