Fell into real estate, though I should've done it long ago.

[Chee Saw]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Murrieta.

Purchase price: $288,000
Cash invested: $30,000

We bought this house as our starter house in 2013. When we bought a bigger house for ourselves in 2019 we decided to keep this property as a rental. Unfortunately when we bought the new house my wife and I were laid off from our jobs due to Covid-19. As such we were kind of pressured into charging a lower price for rent than we wanted, so our cash flow is kind of non-existent (but not negative, at least).

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

I've always been interested in real-estate but never took the first step. This house was a starter home for my wife and I, but I knew right away that I'd want to keep it as an investment.

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

A buyers agent found this house for us. We gave her the monthly we were looking for and a couple of other wants (single-story, four bedrooms, etc.) and she found it.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan. We put down 10%, so we had the mortgage insurance for a year. Then we refinanced to get rid of it.

How did you add value to the deal?

We spent a lot of money on this house when we lived there. Just imagine that this is a very different house than when we moved in.

What was the outcome?

Nice little house with good tenants with very little cash flow for us. Decent equity though.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

After coming to Bigger Pockets I've realized that I really need to make this property produce some monthly income. After the current lease is up I'm DEFINITELY going to raise the rent, but I'm also considering refinancing.