My first home is now my now a good part of my retirement.

[Michael Soto]

Investment Info: 

My first home is now a good part of my retirement. Can't fix the title I guess. LOL 

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $200,000
Cash invested: $30,000

As a military member coming from overseas I was able to take advantage of the VA benefits while moving to Las Vegas. I only wish I did it sooner. But Its hard when you know nothing about the market coming from overseas. But this was my first cash flowing rental rental properties. I purchased a 5 bed 2 story in a guard gated golf course community. This also played a role in value as this propped up my equity higher than other homes in the area. It was also the most jacked up house on the block!

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

Renting is pretty much a scam... I'm not sure why it took so long to figure that out... I think it's because I had roommate fitting the bill most of the time. I ran a tight ship that allowed me to basically live rent free in my house and have the master. I thought I was being smart at the time... in reality I was still throwing money out the window.

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

As far as deals go, I definitely didn't think I was getting one at the time. The house was a wreck. If it had a function it was broken to include no AC on the bottom floor. The house was sold "as is" but being a handy guy I thought I might take on the challenge as the neighborhood was unarguably amazing and the backyard was big. So I put in 1k over asking and got my offer accepted right away. It apprised 7k over asking! So that was cool.

How did you finance this deal?

VA. Admittedly military members don't make as much as I believe we deserve. Of course this is a newly formed opinion. As a young airman I thought I was doing pretty good for myself. If it it wasn't for the VA I do not think I would have been able to finance this property. In fact I was certain that I was going to need roommates to put in four the five rooms in my house so that I can make sure that the mortgage was always paid. This was not ture. But I did live mortgage free for 5 years!

How did you add value to the deal?

The deal had my future as a real estate agent written all over it. The things that were done right was simple, location and layout. I fixed the rest. I also got to house hack and I enjoyed my property for free before it became a cash flowing rental.

What was the outcome?

The house now servers as leverage to buy my next property and to buy the property after that.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I decided to rent out my property for top dollar, so to achieve this I decided to rent out my furniture and belongings as well. This worked well for my initial rental however the rental market caught up with my top dollar rental. So I can rent my house now for the same price without it being fully furnished. no loss however I'm going to have to remove all of that furniture as it is now unserviceable. If you hold any sentimental value of your things I highly recommend you don't do this either.

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

Casey Smith
Mortgage Loan Originator NMLS # 1286878 at FBC Mortgage, LLC
(702) 581-8450