My 2nd investment rental!

[Elysia Hou]

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $234,000
Cash invested: $46,000

Found this little gem in a developing neighborhood located near Park Circle in North Charleston. It was a fix and flip. Conservative numbers showed that this property would cash flow positive after debt service and reserves put aside so we went for it and offered close to listing price. My second rental but my first time property managing!

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

The neighborhood is up and coming and the numbers made sense. Also, I noticed that more people were moving from the Northside down to Charleston.

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

Spent several weeks on realtor trying to find deals and snatch it fast. Most of the deals I searched for were ones that kept dropping in listing price. Here I believe because the immediate area seemed a little sketch to potential buyers it may have been difficult to sell at the original listing price so the sellers kept dropping the price over time. (What I came to learn is that the neighborhood was mostly section 8 renters but it was a totally family-oriented neighborhood so not sketchy)

How did you finance this deal?

Hard money lender (a friend from college who liked hearing about my journey from 1st rental)

How did you add value to the deal?

It was a fix and flip so I did not add sweat equity. I actually got 15k in the appraised value.

What was the outcome?

Positive cash flow. On-time paying tenants!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Since it was a flip and no one has inhabited the home in a while, I wished I started my own inspection of the home sooner to catch maintenance issues faster and not have maintenance performed while tenants are in the house.

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

Yes, I have a great buyers agent that I'd gladly recommend as well as a reliable contractor.