Rental Condo that broke even.

[Scott Brewster]

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $93,000
Cash invested: $23,250
Sale price: $98,700

Nice 2B 2b condo I bought for the cashflow and easily rented area. It worked for a while but I will never buy a condo again in the future. HOAs are terrible to deal with.

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

It was a turn key condo and I was able to get it for a decent price. It was cashflow positive 200$ every month while I managed it myself.

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

Friend of mine is a realtor MLS

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional investment property loan 25% down (saved up because I house hacked my own home at the time)

How did you add value to the deal?

I managed it myself and just had to clean the inside up a bit, add some cabinet hardware, and replace some older lights and this was a very easily rented condo.

What was the outcome?

I kept it for 3 years and never once had it vacant for more than a month. The cashflow was positive but every time I turned around the HOA wanted more and more money from me. It was absolutely ridiculous. I really like all 3 renters that I had and was able to help each of them move into their own homes after my condo.

Hindsight I may have kept it because the cashflow was pretty good I was just tired of the HOA and could have had this paid off by now.

I basically broke even after the 3 years I owned this after the few issues I had and all the times the HOA shook me down for money. I was happy to sell it because I was able to get the original down payment back out of it and didn't really lose any money near the end so I was able to pay for half of my current home in cash which really helped me in the long run.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I will never buy a property with an HOA again. They are complete con artists and will ALWAYS find ways for owners to pay for their bills.

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

I did, pm me for details, she's a great friend of mine and actually helped me sell both properties while I was moving across the country.