First Property Success Story

[Stanley Lawrence Jr]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first week here at BiggerPockets. I have listened to the podcasts and watched the YouTube channel, but I am now trying to grow my network as we take the next steps towards growing our portfolio and heading towards financial independence.

Our story has been very opportunistic. I am fully aware we probably won't see anything like this again, I just wanted to share.

See below:

Backstory:

Prior to moving to the area where we had our property, I had a client there. I realized how close it was to an already expanding city, but it had reasonable prices. I convinced my wife to relocate there and we, by happenstance, came in contact with a realtor that has been amazing.

Property Details:

• Purchase Date: April 2017 for $398,500
• Type: Quadplex
• Loan Type: FHA (3.5% Down) (Discounts on closing costs due to wife working at bank)
• Taxes: City & County (This was important!)
• Rate: 3.875% (Discounts from wife working at bank)
• Cash Flow While Living in 1 Unit: $-584/Month
• Cash Flow Fully Rented: $306.84/Month
• Cash on Cash Return Fully Rented: 26.3%
• Current Sales Price Under Contract: $529,000
• Total Return w/ Principal Paydown: 1000%+

At the time of purchase I did not fully understand the numbers that would have been used to qualify the property as a great investment. My goal was to no longer pay rent and build equity by having those funds go towards ownership. We went from paying $900/Month in rent to $584/Month towards our mortgage and expenses. Ultimately, the tenants paid our principal and interest and our costs went towards taxes and some of the insurance until we moved out. Once we moved, tenants covered all expenses and put $307/month in our pockets for other endeavors. The renters paid almost $30k in principal, over $50k in interest, and over $10k in federal mortgage insurance over the course of 3.5 years. That's a whopping $90k that the renters paid!

I had originally planned to hold the property for the full 30 years, but the appreciation gives us the opportunity to 1031 the funds into more investments to generate more monthly cash flow. We plan to replace all of our w-2 income in the next 5 years. We will then look to amass more properties to comfortably retire and travel.

Real estate investing has been a huge eye opener for me.