Mid Year Financials, by door

I will not go as far as to say that any of our investment purchases were a mistake, but I will say that our last two properties are performing significantly better than our first two properties purchased. I think we got smarter in analyzing deals and recognizing which opportunities to jump on.

Looking at August YTD data, our first property is currently at a negative cash flow of $266, thanks to the eviction costs. It is expected to end the year at a $900 cash flow, if we don’t have any more hiccups, a bit under the $100/door minimum expectations. Last year it exceeded $200/door and it’s been averaging about $1400/year cash flow.

Our second property, the crappy duplex, is currently at a cash flow of $78, thanks to the tenant with high maintenance costs, who is finally gone. It is expected to end the year at a $2800+ cash flow, if we don’t have any more hiccups, a bit over the $100/door minimum expectations. Last year it exceeded $275/door and it’s been averaging about $3000/year cash flow. Hopefully that will creep up if out high maintenance costs are behind us.

I’m excluding our middle property, which Bruce calls our crappiest duplex, is a great little cash cow and we get consistent yellow letters for it from other investors.

Our fourth property, the nice duplex, is currently at a cash flow of almost $5000. It is expected to end the year at a $8000+ cash flow, although we had an interesting maintenance inspection there this week. Last year it exceeded $400/door and it’s been averaging about $7500/year cash flow.

Our final property, a cute little house, is currently at a cash flow of $3300. It is expected to end the year at a $5000 cash flow. Last year it almost hit $600/door and it’s been consistently averaging about $5000/year cash flow.

I think the take away is the value of diversification. If we only owned our first two purchases, real estate investing wouldn’t look as rosy. The more we own, and the more discerning we are about choosing properties, the better we can weather the ups and downs of the year to year happenings.