Holding onto our first place

[Stephen DeFalco]

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment in Chicago.

Purchase price: $150,000

My wife and I bought a condo back in 2012 and had some great years in it. We moved out to the Chicago suburbs for work and to have room to start a family and held onto it as an investment property. 1 bed, 1 bath 'soft loft' in the heart of River North with parking, storage, and good building amenities.

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

At the time location was everything to us and condo living was preferred in our early 20's. This was our primary residence for 6 years and when we wanted to upgrade to a house we decided to hold onto it.

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

Traditional house hunting with an agent.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional 30 year loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Upgraded kitchen appliances after we moved out. Going to update bathroom and cabinets in the coming years.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Turnover has been a challenge. We've had three tenants in three years and usually about a two month vacancy in-between tenants so any profits we make in the year go into holding costs in-between tenants but it's essentially paying for itself and are almost finished paying off the mortgage so expect larger returns in 5+ years.