Tell me about your first deal...
Hello! New Real Estate Investor here!
When I decided to get into real estate investing, I chose the wholesale path. I cannot wait to land my first deal. I envision the rush, the joy, and happy tears of landing my first deal. I want to know how you got to your first deal as an investor, how long did it take, what creative strategy did you use, did you cry tears of joy? I want to know it all, tell me about your first deal!!
My first deal was a house hack. I bought a 3 bedroom SFR in Scottsdale, AZ. I rented out the extra bedrooms, and lived almost for free for a couple years. I ended up selling that house after enjoying it for 5 years and walked away with a $130,000 tax-free pay day.
I didn't cry tears of joy because I try to leave emotion out of my real estate investments. But I'm human, of course it was a bit exhilarating getting into my first deal.
My first deal was a house hack as well! I remember being so nervous to interview renters and having someone sharing a space. I was afraid that I would have a nightmare tenant, but it actually worked out beautifully! I found an amazing tenant who kept up with the property, paid on time and didn't have any issues. My first two tenants were awesome, and then I ran into a few bad apples after that lol. If you plan on doing buy and holds, I would definitely screen your tenants thoroughly! I got lucky on my first two, but I learned a hard lesson on a few others!
Quote from @Brianna Devons:
Hello! New Real Estate Investor here!
When I decided to get into real estate investing, I chose the wholesale path. I cannot wait to land my first deal. I envision the rush, the joy, and happy tears of landing my first deal. I want to know how you got to your first deal as an investor, how long did it take, what creative strategy did you use, did you cry tears of joy? I want to know it all, tell me about your first deal!!
When I got started investing my sophomore year of college, I had $500 to my name, My grandmother lent me $12k for the downpayment on a duplex on OSU campus in Columbus. Over the course of a year my wife and I fixed it up, rented to friends, ate peanut butter and jelly, did everything we could. We then refinanced the property and it has given us $140k in cash back and continually produces $1,800/month in cash flow.
Get started and it will be only good things for your future!
First deal was a househack where I rented rooms to friends in my 20's. Second deal was another househack and I'm adding an ADU. Third will be a STR in Joshua Tree. Excited for you to get your first deal! Let me know if I can help in any way.
-
Real Estate Agent California (#02166235)
- The David Greene Team
- 310-720-1057
- [email protected]
My first deal was a 4 bed 2 bath single family in Grand Rapids, MI. I searched for a few months using a local realtor and eventually purchased the property for $41,500 (this was in 2014). After about 3k in renovations it rented quickly for 1k a month. I remember the home inspector (inspections were still a thing back then) trying to talk me out of buying it because he had a bad experience with rentals. I was young at the time and almost didn't make the purchase. Last year, after 25k of renovations, I sold the property for 200k. Real estate can be a phenomenal investment over time and I am thankful I made this purchase. I am still new to this and finding a deal never gets old :)
My first deal was a SF 3/2 in Round Rock, Texas outside of Austin. A friend had traveled the country and picked Austin as his favorite market. This was 2007. I didn't know squat about RE but I loved Austin and always wanted to get in the RE game. He told me a friend of his was selling a house for 113K. I went to the bookstore, bought Real Estate for Dummies and I bought the house sight unseen in the next few days. 113K. I think I put 15K down. Started with a tenant paying $995. Not the best deal but it got me started. That tenant stayed 10 years until he disappeared one night. I had to pull 35K out to rehab it and use a little cash for personal stuff. Today it's worth at least 350K and the rent is now $1650 which is probably a little low, but I have had a retired couple in there since we rehabbed it in 2017. They never complain and pay on time every month. I am thinking of selling it in the next year or so to put the equity to work for me.
#2 House Hacking Contributor
- Real Estate Agent
- Los Angeles, CA
My first was a house hack in Los Angeles. I got a fixer condo, RAISED my interest rate as high as possible to cover my closing costs, and got to work. After fixing up the condo, I refinanced a month later, and then refinanced again six months after that. I rented out the second bedroom to a friend of mine and away we went. I then used a line of credit to purchase the second house hack where we built out an ADU and did work to the main house through the FHA 203(k) program. Construction process was rough dealing with the city, but worked out in the end.
@Brianna Devons my first deal was a househack that I did minor rehab too. I bought it for $182,000, lived for free and sold it for $327,000 a few years later
My first RE purchase was a live in BRRRR (before the term) house hack. It was a 3 BR 2 Bathroom that I used 2 of the BR and rented one of the BRs. My last roommate was my girlfriend, fiancé, wife (we got married when still living there). When we moved out, we turned it into a rental. We moved out less than a year after finishing the rehab (last big item was the kitchen).
It has now been refinanced 3 times but all of my investment was extracted on the first refinance. It convinced me of the power of the BRRRR, but it took quite a while to convince the wife. After I convinced her, we basically did one BRRRR nearly every year.
That initial RE was purchased for $167K and is now worth just over $1M. Needless to say, it was a great start. Extracting my initial investment allowed me to purchase our next home (not a BRRRR).
@Brianna Devons My first deal is a house hack in the inland empire! I see you're in LA county which isn't too far! I bought a 4 bd 2 ba house in Redlands Ca and rent out the rooms to cover my mortgage. I got it 2 years ago and havent paid a dime yet!
Now we are looking to get our next deal down in San Diego! I hope you find something that works for you!
@Brianna Devons If I were just starting out I would house hack. Look at all the success people are having in the comments. I'm so jealous. :) I wish I had known about house hacking when I started. I feel like it's a no brainer. A friend did one in Inglewood. Rented out a room in the main house and then rented out the back house. Lives for free while owning an asset. He's already saved enough for his next house hack. Relatively quick route to a few million $ (in LA anyway)
My first deal was when I was in college. I was renting a room in a house with very cheap rent and when I left I stayed on the lease and subleased the room to another student at a higher rate than I was paying.