All Forum Posts by: Garry Anthony

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $24,000
Cash invested: $37,000

This is a 2 bed 1 bath house, with a detached garage. It was in need of some serious TLC.

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

I had one deal under my belt already, and I was wanting to give a rehab a shot.

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

It was on the MLS, and I negotiated through an agent. Get ready to hold my beer.... they were asking $25k, and I talked them down to $24k. Bam! 2 points for the home team! It really wasn't all that special, but it was better than nothing.

How did you finance this deal?

My business partner (my mom) and I went in on this 50/50. We paid cash and financed the rehab out of pocket.

How did you add value to the deal?

We repainted the outside, rewired the whole house and added can lights throughout, changed all the windows, redid the bathroom, put down new flooring throughout, repainted, and did some work in the crawl space.

What was the outcome?

When the rehab was finished, I started the refinance process. Due to loan terms, I decided to move into the house. By doing so I was able to pull out $4,000 more than I invested and have a low interest rate for the loan.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned a lot about having patience. I was stubborn and wanted to do all the work myself. It was a good learning experience, but it caused the project to take twice as long as it should have. As the project was starting to seem like it was going to go on forever, I tried rushing some things along. Every time I did that, it bit me in the butt. So I wont be trying to find the fast way around things again.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $24,000
Cash invested: $37,000

Here is my first BRRRR property.... well kind of. I will explain that later on. The rehab of this house was no simple task, for me. This was my first project, and being the stubborn person that I am, I wanted to experience doing all the work myself. My previous construction experience consisted of painting, and working with an electrician for two months. Needless to say, a three month project took me six months, and a $6,000 rehab cost me $13,000. It's all part of learning though. The house needed some TLC on the outside, and every room between the attic and crawlspace. To sum up all that was done, we painted the outside, hung new gutters, replaced all the windows, rewired the whole house and garage, tore out the bathroom, tore out and rebuilt an exterior wall, put down new flooring, dug a sump pit in the crawlspace, and put up support beams down there as well. YouTube was my best friend during these times! I did get some help from friends from time to time, which was greatly appreciated, but most of the time I was torturing myself, trying to figure things out. Looking back on it now, it was an incredible lesson on patience and time management.

When I purchased this property, the plan was to fix it up and rent it. As the rehab was approaching the end and I was starting to talk to banks more about refinancing, I decided to move into the house myself. Loan options were much more favorable for an owner occupied refinance, when compared to an investment property refinance. The closing costs were about $1500 less, the interest rate was lower, and I was able to pull out 80% of the appraised value. With all that considered, it was an easy decision for me to make. I had a total of $37,000 invested into this house, so I needed the appraisal to be around $48,000 for it to cover the loan costs and the capital invested. To my surprise, the appraisal came back at $55,000. With that, I was able to clear a little under $5,000 after all expenses were paid. Not to mention, the mortgage payment, with tax and insurance included, was only $294 a month. That was something I could live with! The project as a whole, worked out really well. It didn't seem like it was going to during the rehab period, but that's where I had the hard lessons on patience.

@Ronny Ovando Does the agent that helped you buy your house know that you are interested in investment properties? If you two had a good transaction before, you could probably just call them up and tell them what you are looking for.  As long as you can give a somewhat specific criteria, they might have/come across something that would be a good fit for you. Its worth a shot, even if you still decide to look for an agent that focuses more on investments properties.   

I just checked it out. Its a pretty sweet tool to use! Thanks for adding another great feature to the site!

Why not just have them do owner financing?  Their credit wouldn't be an issue then, and it really wouldn't change the situation for anyone involved. 

Congrats! Those numbers don't seem bad, and you got it rented extremely quick after the purchase!

Thanks! Sorry I didn't see this sooner. It was definitely a learning experience.  I was going into it with zero knowledge, so I was very lucky to have good people helping me out.   

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $59,900
Cash invested: $13,000

I bought this duplex as my first investment property, and I bought it back at the end of March. I lucked out that both sides were rented by good, long-term tenants already. It has really made the transition into becoming a landlord much easier, and it also helped that I was able to receive about $520 bucks a month after all expenses were paid. Overall, I am very happy with my first purchase, and I am very excited for my next one.

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

I was originally looking to find a duplex to house hack, and that’s how I ended up stumbling upon this house. As I started getting serious about running the numbers, I realized that it made for sense for me to buy it and keep it as a rental. I was putting more in my pocket by continuing to rent where I live, when compared to moving into one side of the duplex. It was for that reason that I went ahead and purchased it.