All Forum Posts by: Dimitri Paspalaris

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment in Jacksonville.

Purchase price: $168,000
Cash invested: $45,280

First deal done in the best school district in Florida. One down many to go. If you can put your mind to it and work hard you can achieve your goals.

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

I wanted to diversify my investments and not have all my funds in just equities and cash.

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

Found it via realtor.com and my real estate agent.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional 25% down

How did you add value to the deal?

Just did some small cosmetic work

What was the outcome?

Tenant has moved in and paid the first check and it feels amazing.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

So many with a blog post to follow. Big thing is to never give up and keep trying. Make sure the numbers work, have a great team and do your homework prior to jumping in. Challenges building a winning team, finding deals, understanding the process of not just buying a house but how to set the foundations of being a good landlord.

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

Lots of people here on BP, want to give a major shout out to my lender and re agent they were more like mentors and if anyone is investing in Jacksonville will definitely pass you their info. My dad for helping me with the paperwork and being my handyman/general contractor/landlord as I continue my career with the Navy. Also my girlfriend for putting up with me analyzing all of my deals and constantly making phone calls and doing research.

@Pierre Dunbar no problem and I picked St Johns/ orange park is because I grew up in St Johns county and know the other areas because Jacksonville is my home.  I am a long distance investor with the military and it is interesting being far away. I would recommend trying to establish your team and making sure they understand you are an investor and not a person just trying to buy a home. It makes a huge difference if you have the wrong players. I got rid of a couple re agents because they did not understand my intentions and that is alright. It made me larn business is business and sometimes it is not good to mix family friends in the mix. 

Early riser due to the military

Putting my first tennant this afternoon today in Jacksonville FL. I would look into st johns county since it is the best schools in florida. Also look into orange park florida. If you need an awesome realtor and broker to help you out. Just PM me. 

Depends on the area. If all of the other houses have garages and yours doesn't your values for renting or selling will more than likely need to be cheaper. I would recommend checking to see what the other properties near by have and to make sure the numbers are good prior to making the deal. 

I just did my first one and it was a townhome. I read a lot and asked a lot of questions and still missed some things. I would recommend studying up for at least 6 months to a year, make sure you have some cash on the side for a solid rainy day fund ( 3 to 6 months to cover yourself if bad things happen) and then find a deal that makes sense via the numbers. Work on building that team you can rely on as you gain knowledge. I went through many lenders and re agents prior to getting my team. I would also recommend to house hack, sfr or townhome to start so you get a grasp of the basics. Good luck and shoot me a pm if you got any questions. 

Hello all. I was wondering if 5% capex, and 5% repairs is right for my town-home. The HOA covers all yard work and everything outside. Thanks for the help.

You need to have some cash savings in hand just in case a rainy day occurs in your life. For me it is 3 months worth of money.  Deals will come and go but if you get a rainy day and can't cover it is gonna be real hard to come back. 

I would recommend looking into west Jacksonville and orange park area the zip code is 32210, 32244, 32215,32205.

I would ask a lawyer about this to cover yourself.