Kickstarting my REI journey

[Vu V.]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Oakland.

Purchase price: $602,500
Cash invested: $70,000
Sale price: $625,000

This is a 1914, 4bed/1.5bath SFH located in Oakland, CA.
Currently, I am looking to increase the value of the house by cosmetic fix-ups with an updated floor plan to turn it into a 5 bed, 2.5bath SFH.

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

It's definitely the ability to house-hack.

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

Via my wonderful agent, Houston Garcia.
It was a motivated seller type of negotiation. We tried our best to accommodate and meet our end of the bargain.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional

How did you add value to the deal?

Adding 1 bathroom and 1 bedroom. General cosmetic fix up

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

Yes! Check out Houston Garcia at Compass.

[Account Closed]

There is much more talk about BRRR and far less true numbers that show actual results. This is seriously bad for investors new to the business. Too many people cheer for new investors based on useless information and I only envision new investors realizing they lost money when it was too late, or they realize they made huge mistakes, could have done much better, but it is too late because now they are disillusioned and hate real estate investing with a passion.

Back in the 1980's, I lost almost $2 millions because of exactly what goes on in forums. Many friends, business associates, my CPA, paid financial advisors and paid attorneys listened to what I wanted to do and they agreed that I was doing the right thing, but not one of those persons spent one second of their time to evaluate my investments nor did they evaluate my risks and I lost $1,850,000 plus several years of my time and hard work. On top of that, to pour salt on an open wound, I paid attorneys about $100,000 (can't remember) to sue two general partners and there was so many lawsuits between parties I fired my attorneys for ripping me off and filed bankruptcy. It took about 5 miserable years for the dust to settle and that is why I am hard on everyone who writes posts claiming they think they have everything figured out. If you want accurate advice then you need to be truthful starting with yourself and then be willing to make the effort to include in your posts the critical information that will bury you. Your claims for profits mean absolutely nothing without posting every number and your risks.