All Forum Posts by: Autumn Churchill

I bought a duplex for a low price here in Sacramento, from another agent at my brokerage. 

It cashflows nicely but I may have been too excited and overlooked the fact that it's in a terrible neighborhood - taken over by drug addicts / vagrants. 

In the future I will only be buying A and B class neighborhoods. I just don't care for the feel of this area and I'm sure my appreciation longterm will not keep up with market average. 

@Autumn Churchill,

Our first true investment property was a duplex.   What I've learned is that you don't take anything personally,  your tenants don't like you, and 99%  of the time,  you likely won't like them when you see the place when you move out.  Figure out a way to harden your rentals, and be proactive with stuff, tenants don't care about your house.  

Do annual inspections, even if you think you don't need to.., walkthrough, and see what's going on with your own eyes.   You can prevent a lot of bigger problems by catching smaller ones. 

The worst thing you can think is "This won't happen to me, I'm going to be a good landlord."   Bad stuff happens to good people all the time, you need to be proactive and plan for it, whether it's fires (we provide 2 separate fire extinguishers, smoke alarms,etc), or leaving bug spray  for tenants because you know tenants will be messy and bugs will come-- you need to plan to be proactive as a landlord.  The more you plan and are proactive, the smoother the ride can be for you.

@Autumn Churchill

Right away. 

I was fearful of losing the tenant and spending the money to rehab so soon after purchase. Looking back I lost out on thousands in profits and delayed equity growth which I could have used to buy the next property sooner.

First investment was a duplex. I should have rehabbed and raised rents sooner.

First investment was a duplex in Colorado Springs. It was out of necessity more than for cashflow, but turned out to be a home run. Rents were far under market, zoned r4, detached garage is getting converted to ADU eventually, etc....Currently looking at the next property and will be able to rent out the side I'm living it. Will bring in about $3800 in rent for both sides once we move, mortgage is about $2500 so nice little cash flow of $1300 minus maintenance/unforeseen/etc....

If I could've done it differently I would have gone with an FHA loan with the low interest rate and less money out of pocket. This way I could accelerate renovations and reappraise for a very large HELOC. I'm not sure if FHA is advisable now but since PMI rates have changed, it may be viable. The whole idea of purchasing a $550k property being from Nebraska originally was wild, I was very scared but now I am armed with the knowledge and confidence to crush the next deal. It was a great starting point in a highly appreciating neighborhood. It was also at the top of the market in January 2022, which just illustrates that there are always good deals but they need to be analyzed properly.