Hello BP,
Twenty eight years ago I bought my first rental property. It was an owner financed 3 unit property with a $5k down payment on a 12 year note. We held the property for 7 years and had good equity when we sold it back to the original owner.
What we did next was our biggest mistake. We should have recognized how real estate could build wealth, but instead, we fell for the shiny object. We decided to build our dream home. We built a 6000 sq. ft. home and basically had spent our entire equity on the lot and the down payment and now had a huge liability rather than the passive income of the rental property.
We finally decided to sell the dream home last summer. Our only benefit to this, was the mortgage pay-down and the 45% appreciation on the home. We are now well capitalized and should be able to acquire multiple properties to build our wealth and provide for the passive income to supplement our retirement.
While looking for a new, smaller home, I stumbled upon Bigger Pockets last September and then realized how we had squandered all those years in the rat race, rather than building wealth in real estate if we had continued upon our original path.
After spending hours upon hours listening to podcasts, reading the forums and learning how to analyze deals, we were finally ready to start making offers. We have made offers on 5 properties and were getting outbid.
Anyhow we finally got a 2bd 2ba. duplex under contract. Each side is 1150sq ft. with a single car garage each side. The exterior has new siding, paint and a new roof.
We had the inspection last weekend and met the tenants. One tenant is being evicted as I write, and the unit needs a full rehab, cabinets, floors, doors and paint. The other tenant is outstanding, he wants to stay, the place is clean, in good condition and we are told he always pays on time.
The property will cash flow at current rents, but the plan is to rehab the first unit to get it to market rate and raise the rent on the other unit. If the good tenant moves, then we will do a cosmetic rehab to get closer to market rate.
SOOO, that leads me to my question, I am going to be needing some good contractors that work in the Snohomish County area. I could use a demo crew, handyman, painter, flooring, cabinet installer and a door and trim installer. We are scheduled to close mid March, so I'd like to interview some contractors and have them walk the property before closing as soon as the eviction is finalized.
If anyone has any recommendations for good contractors, you can PM me their contact information.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope my story helps others from falling for the shiny object like we did and motivates them to make good decisions to pursue their quest of building wealth through REI.
Updates to follow....
