All Forum Posts by: Austin Carroll

Do you have dreams of building wealth through real estate investing? Are you in search of people who have successfully invested in real estate and can teach you how to do it? You're in the right place! We will host a FREE investment seminar via Zoom on Tuesday at 5:30! We will discuss where to start looking, where to find funding, and knowing how far to go with the property.

This seems like an amazing opportunity. If you need our help walking you through this process, feel free to reach out to us. We've done so many different kinds of investments, and while sometimes it seems daunting it can be manageable with the right team to help you. Good luck, and we're here when you're ready!

Just looking at this thread, did you end up moving to either of these cities? What has been your experience so far? 

@Vee Vu

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Baltimore.

Purchase price: $104,000
Cash invested: $55,000

Bought this 2 unit property with cash that we raised for $104,000. The downstairs was rented for $900 a month and the upstairs needed a renovation. We put $40,000 into the second floor and rented it out for $1,050 per month and then moved the downstairs tenants out and rented that space for $1,150 per month including utilities.

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

This was an attractive investment because the home was laid out very well as a huge 3 bed 2 bath unit and 2 bed 1 bath unit with plenty of space in each. The downstairs was rented and provided cashflow while we renovated the upstairs. Finally we fixed the first floor up and were able to increase the rents. I like where this property is and am excited for the future prospects of it.

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

This deal was on the MLS, we negotiated it pretty heavily after another deal fell through.

How did you finance this deal?

Cash that was raised privately (not hard money), and then cash out refinance at 75% LTV.

How did you add value to the deal?

We added value through construction and tenant placement on this deal.

What was the outcome?

The outcome is that we have minimal cash into a deal that is a fully renovated home.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Biggest lesson learned was moving out our bottom tenant. It was set up as two separate leases, one for each room. It was challenging to get the people out, and we were probably a little bit too lenient with letting them stay there longer than we originally wanted them to.

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

I was the agent on the deal, but Ken White and Revere Bank did a great job on the refinance.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Hagerstown.

Purchase price: $138,600
Cash invested: $62,000
Sale price: $235,000

This property was my first investment outside of my house hack. It was bought as a 3 unit, but we soon found out that it was 2 separate properties. I brought my best friend in as a partner on the deal, with him buying in 10% equity. We bought with conventional financing and put about $60,000 in upgrading the property. We were able to get 80% financing on our cash our refinance so we cashed out all of our cash in the deal. Sold for $235,000 by an unsolicited offer.

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

I was interested in the high cashflow of Hagerstown relative to the price. Also to get a 3 unit for 138k was very attractive as I didn't have a ton of cash. This was also a huge property that had so much promise. I knew we could cash our refinance and still cashflow pretty heavy, which made the deal a no brainer for me.

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

The deal was listed on the MLS and we negotiated pretty heavily with the agent, throwing out a lowball offer (110k for list of 155k) and ended up settling on $138,600 with 2% seller subsidy.

How did you finance this deal?

We bought with fannie freddie financing, and refinanced with a community bank, essex community bank on a 20 year am 80% LTV product. They also used a desktop appraisal and essentially took our price suggestion.

How did you add value to the deal?

We added deal by doing some of the work ourselves, finishing an attic to get another bedroom, renting the garage separately, and generally fixing alot of deferred maintenance. We also gained value by separating the two properties and refinancing and selling them as if they were separate.

What was the outcome?

We ended up making roughly 30k on the deal and having 2 years of solid cashflow around $1,000 a month.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Our biggest lesson learned was to vet the property management. We used one of my buddies who lived in DC and was starting a property management company in Hagerstown. He had little to no experience and it ended up being a bad situation when he did not properly vet one tenant, which caused another to leave, and lots of damage to the home.

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

We worked with affordable rental property management in Hagerstown and they were great.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Hagerstown.

Purchase price: $138,600
Cash invested: $62,000
Sale price: $235,000

This property was my first investment outside of my house hack. It was bought as a 3 unit, but we soon found out that it was 2 separate properties, a single family home and a duplex. I had just left my full time job to become a real estate agent, so I brought my best friend in as a partner on the deal, with him buying in 10% equity. We bought with conventional financing (fannie freddie 25% down loan) and put about $60,000 in upgrading the property. We then got a new appraisal and the appraisal value came in at $255,000, above the acutal market value, which was probably around $225,000. We were able to get 80% financing on our cash our refinance so we cashed out all of our cash in the deal and it made about $1,100, a month after all expenses. We were approached by a company to buy the property in December of 2018 and we knew some deferred maintenance was coming up so we decided to sell at $235,000.

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

I was interested in the high cashflow of Hagerstown relative to the price. Also to get a 3 unit for 138k was very attractive as I didn't have a ton of cash. This was also a huge property that had so much promise. I knew we could cash our refinance and still cashflow pretty heavy, which made the deal a no brainer for me.

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

The deal was listed on the MLS and we negotiated pretty heavily with the agent, throwing out a lowball offer (110k for list of 155k) and ended up settling on $138,600 with 2% seller subsidy.

How did you finance this deal?

We bought with fannie freddie financing, and refinanced with a community bank, essex community bank on a 20 year am 80% LTV product. They also used a desktop appraisal and essentially took our price suggestion.

How did you add value to the deal?

We added deal by doing some of the work ourselves, finishing an attic to get another bedroom, renting the garage separately, and generally fixing alot of deferred maintenance. We also gained value by separating the two properties and refinancing and selling them as if they were separate.

What was the outcome?

We ended up making roughly 30k on the deal and having 2 years of solid cashflow around $1,000 a month.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Our biggest lesson learned was to vet the property management. We used one of my buddies who lived in DC and was starting a property management company in Hagerstown. He had little to no experience and it ended up being a bad situation when he did not properly vet one tenant, which caused another to leave, and lots of damage to the home.

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

We worked with affordable rental property management in Hagerstown and they were great.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Baltimore.

Purchase price: $93,000
Cash invested: $15,000

This property was BRRR'd. Bought as part of a portfolio with 4 other properties, this property needed about $10,000 of work and then refinanced at a value of $124,000, allowing us to cash out almost exactly what the purchase price was and only need to leave in the repair cost and closing costs, equalling roughly $15,000.

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

The attractvieness of this investment came because it was part of a undervalued portfolio that was being sold by the owner. The property was almost in rent ready shape and was about 25% below market value.

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

This deal was found on the MLS, however we asked the owner when he met us if he had any other properties, he said yes, and we looked at his whole portfolio, negotiated a reduced bulk price and were able to buy all the units and refinance them within 9 months.

How did you finance this deal?

This deal was purchased with a community bank, raising the 25% down needed along with a small construction budget. We then refinanced out with the same bank, the increase in valuation was enough to pay back all investors from the original purchase.

How did you add value to the deal?

Value was added by negotiating hard and making it easy for the owner to sell us the whole portfolio, and then by taking on 11 units in scattered sites.

What was the outcome?

It was the starting blocks to building a 55 unit portfolio. We got to scale quickly, which allowed us to take bigger risks on other projects and provide a solid cashflow base.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The biggest lesson we learned was accepting a unqualified tenant so that we could refinance quicker. In order to reach the banks required DSCR we needed to rent out one more unit from the portfolio and we laxed our standards and ended up having a nightmare scenario with a tenant staying in our unit for 8 months with only ever paying us the security deposit and 1 the first months rent.

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

I am a real estate agent and own a small team so we used my expertise throughout the process. For financing with the deal we used Ken White with Revere Bank.