This is the Legend of Pati, the BRRRR that almost wasn't.

Part One:

I’m happy. I’m happy because I got to the bank before they closed. I’m also dripping sweat from running from Walgreens, after picking up my prescription for pain killers, to the bank (I figured that was faster than getting back in my car, and I had minutes). Now I’m standing in the bank teller’s line. The local anesthesia from an outpatient surgery about an hour earlier is starting to wear off and I’m waiting to take out a cash advance on a credit card. And I’m happy about this! I’ve figured out a way to stave off doom for a little while longer. For somebody who considered themselves a somewhat experienced BRRRR investor, if this isn’t rock bottom, it can’t be far away. And spoiler alert: this story has a happy ending!?!

So who is Pati? Pati is an acronym; PATI actually. Put Another Thousand In. This is usually the gist of the message every time the phone has rang for the last several months. Sometimes it’s a few hundred, other times is was ten thousand. But generally, it was “Put another thousand in”. To this day, when I walk in to Lowe’s they see me and ask how Pati’s doing.

Pati started off as a BRRRR. The deal looked good on paper. It was a four bedroom, two bath in a decent neighborhood with good bones. It was totally trashed; a combination of a tenant who didn’t care, a landlord who didn’t care much more than the tenant, and deferred maintenance. But it almost all looked superficial, except for a rather wet basement. This I attributed to bad grading around the house and insufficient and clogged gutters. It looked like a third bathroom could be added. The seller wanted $90k, and given that there was no effort put into sprucing it up, I figured they’d take a lot less. I had no idea what to expect for rehab costs. I’d read J Scott’s book, I just struggled a little bit with putting it in to practice. I’d guessed about $30 for the rehab (it wound up being over $60) and figured an ARV of around $150K. I offered $75 expecting a counter and was shocked when they accepted. Am I the only one that wonders, when a low initial offer is accepted, “What am I missing”? This was the last thing that would go right with this project for a very long time.