First deal(s)
We have actually had a few houses in the years that my wife and I have been together, and we have actually made money on all of them, but it was largely "luck", & what was happening w/ the economy. The house that we had prior to this one we bought in the sub prime, sign your name, get a loan time of 2004. We purchased the house for $ 176,000, w/ 100% financing. We actually couldn't even afford the $2000 for the homeowner's insurance to close the deal, and our mortgage broker told us " I'm making enough off of this deal that I will loan you the $2000." "free house!" We sold the house a year later for $215,000 + a Mazda 626.
Side note, talk about creative buying, my wife and the buyer were haggling over a couple thousand dollars when she stated " I need to get a car out of this deal", to which he replied "I've got a car, actually, I have 2, take your pick". I was impressed w/ his quick thinking, and we made the deal.
The house that we are in right now is what I consider our first deal. We were familiar w/ the house and the tenants that lived here. Our son actually rented a room from the couple that leased the house. By coincidence, my wife ran into the girl who was renting the house at breakfast one morning, and the topic came up that the owner wanted to sell, and we should check it out. We met w/ the owner, found out that she had inherited the house, rented it for a while, and wanted out. I asked her if she would hold a mortgage, and after we explained to her what that meant, she said that she would talk to her lawyer and let us know. She consulted her attorney and said "yes". We gave her $500 (yes, $500, not a typo) and bought the house. At the time, since we hadn't owned a home in a few years, we qualified as "first time homebuyers". We received $7000 back from the gov't which, in effect, paid for our closing costs. Another almost "free" house.
When we took possession of the house, it was pretty rough. We thought that we would clean, paint, and move in. But, (!) there was a sag in in the Florida room, (now dining room) ceiling, so I HAD to poke it with a stick. three hours later half of the house was gutted. It went pretty fast because the termites had helped out a lot. Since then we have removed walls, replaced about 90% of the electric, re graded the yard, installed new water line to the house, landscaped, (including moving 20' palm trees w/ shovel and pick up that were free on craigslist), insulated, etc.... My daughter, 11 at the time, and I actually pulled a new copper hot water line under the slab. I'm now in the process of enclosing the carport to make a garage, and finally installing central a/c. I would not have done all of this if it were purely an investment property, but since it was our primary residence, well.....
Now, we have considerable equity in the home. We have almost doubled the value, and have been aggressively paying it down. We are about to re fi and convert this to a rental. Almost amazingly it is already rented w/o any advertising, our tenant asked "how soon can you be out?" We haven't even found our next home yet.
Just wanted to add that I'm lovin' BP, and tellin' everyone.