All Forum Posts by: Hollie Bendall

Hey BP family!

It’s been a while since I’ve been on this site. Life got reeaally crazy for a minute. In the last few months we gave birth to our baby girl prematurely. She was born at just 3lbs but is perfectly healthy now and ready for her first house flip (outside of mommy’s tummy;).

In spite of our personal life craziness, we still continued to move forward with our realestate investing. I wanted to share some successes that will hopefully keep you focused, even amidst the ‘gloom and doom’ in our current economy.

About 18months ago my husband and I purchased our first rental property. It was a horrific dump that needed a maaaajjjor overhaul. So we rehabbed, rehabbed and rehabbed some more.

We worked with a local lender to BRRR that property, and took out around $20,000 from the duplex.

We then rolled that into a flip property which we purchased in 2019.

As life would have it, we got pregnant right about the time we closed on this property (which also needed major rehabbing;).

But we dug in our heels and got to work. We flipped the property in 90days! It unfortunately took another several months to sell. We were definitely “late to the market”, listing it at the beginning of Sept 2019. We had our baby 6wks early, soon after we listed it and spent several weeks in the NICU with our little peanut.

Our flip sat on the market, incurring holding costs for almost 4 months before it went under contract on New Year’s Eve.

I’m happy to say that we just sold it last week! And even with the crazy shenanigans that 2019 brought us, we still profited $17,000 on our first flip. That might not sound like a lot, but considering it was our first, I’m really proud. We also live in a tiny town in MI and housing prices are very low (average house sells for less than 100k).

During those 4 months that our house “sat” we didn’t give up hope. We knew that realestate is a good investment as long as you do your due diligence.

We kept our heads up, knew it would eventually sell, and continued to ‘keep our heads in the game’ by listening to Bigger pockets podcast daily, reading realestate books and analyzing deals.

I also took the realestate training course and got my realestate license during this time. We now have another flip under contract and will close on it next week! Aaannd with the lessons we learned from our last flip, we will be better timed to the summer market and more profitable than our last investment.

I hope this gives you some hope and an extra boost of determination today. We are pumped to continue moving forward and so grateful to BP for all the help!

Hollie

@Josiah Patrick Zebarth

Hey Josiah! So proud of you for starting to acquire knowledge and strategize so young! Keep it up!!

My hubby and I live in the Midwest (MI) and we also invest here.

We own a duplex (bought for $40,000 last July). We BRRRd it into our first flip and will list that property for sale next wk.

The Midwest is an awesome place to live and invest for serious cash flow.

It’s also an awesome place to work in the trades while growing your savings. Lots of good paying work up here in fields like plumbing, asbestos removal, etc.

Highly recommend it;) Let me know if you end up moving to the Mitten and I’ll be happy to give you some recommendations!

Hi Peter

I’m in Owosso MI, between flint and Lansing. Commuter town. 

Where in Mi are you from?

Hi Matt, 

I’m investing in Owosso Mi. Small commuter town between Detroit and Lansing. Lansing is also a great city to invest in. 

@Andrew Smith

My husband and I are buying in MI. We bought a duplex recently for $40,000. After the mortgage, cap ex, repairs, taxes, etc, it still cash flows $$750mo ($375/unit).

Thanks so much Jaysen! I appreciate the help. It’s a great property and an even better price point.

I’m looking at a Quadplex in MI that also has a garage that’s been converted into a 5th apartment unit.

I know that conventional and FHA loans only lend on (up to) 4 units. I'm curious if anyone knows if this property would fall into a loop hole of some sort since the 5th unit is a converted (and separate building) garage, allowing me to utilize a conventional or fha loan.

I can certainly explore other loan options, but I’d love to use an fha loan on my next property if possible.

#hopefulinMI

Thanks so much Colleen! I do believe they are pine so that is good advice

@Hollie Bendall

Thanks so much Colleen. I tried to post a pic but haven’t figured that out yet;)

I’m glad to hear your wide plank floors turned out great!

I’m going to refinish these floors. Wish me luck!!!

@Colleen

IMG_6130.HEIC