Rental Property Investor · Bloomington, MN · Member since 2019 · 404 posts · 542 votes
6y
My first investment property purchase was a 3 bed, 1 bath condo for $49,000. It was a foreclosure. It has gone very well. I have owned it for 8 years now. If the right opportunity came I would consider selling it and doing a 1031 exchange. However, it cash flows very well (mainly due to the purchase price) which means that I'm fine holding it longer.
It is located in Newport, MN, which is south of St. Paul. I can't think of anything that I wish I knew at the time. I'm glad I made the decision to jump into real estate investing. I wish that I was more aggressive over the last 8 years both in terms of expansion and how I handled the properties I have owned. I have been too relaxed about increasing the rent amount.
Now I am at a point where I have to decide how to expand. I have 7 "doors" now.
Rental Property Investor · Centralia, WA · Member since 2017 · 75 posts · 85 votes
6y
2005, I bought my first property, a SFH, for $62500, no down payment, a 80/20 loan: 80% of the loan at 6% interest and 20% at 6.50%. It was a bit of a fixer upper: I replaced the nasty *** carpet with floating hardwood, painted the kitchen and exterior of the home, and installed new a new hot water tank. And the A/C unit had to be replaced a couple of months later. Frankly, I didn't know what I was doing most of the time. I bought some books and it was all trial and error.
I was living in the barracks at the time and after work, headed to my house, worked on it for a couple of hours, and returned back to post. My weekends for the next several weeks were working on the property. I finally moved in after two weeks remodeling the place and it wasn't totally finished but livable. I finally paid it off this past March and although I'm not living there anymore, I've got a tenant there for the last 5 years and they don't look like they're leaving anytime soon. This wasn't supposed to be an investment but someplace to live. I'm glad I purchased it.
An older single-wide in a park we sold with seller financing. Wish I knew we had to prime the ceiling before we painted it 14x from years of smoking.
Next was a 10 unit mixed-use in 2003 from a bank that carried the loan for us.
Still have it. Learned to adapt to what the market offers (was looking for a 5 bed house) and not having a mortgage payment anymore helps when pandemics hit.
Rental Property Investor · South shore, MA · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
Borderline tear down 3br single family home. Still have it and rent it out. That was 3 years ago.
One thing I wish I had known then:
Rather than over-renovate, I would have put the money to better use elsewhere. Like buying another investment, or saving for a down payment on an owner occupied.
My first property I bought in Texas near a college. It is a 5bed.
Had to replace a few things, paint, and remove a huge kennel system from the backyard. They were dog breeders and kept them in one room in particular. That room took a TON of cleaning, but ultimately became the nicest room in the house. The house is not updated but is fixed up. As things break or get damaged I'm replacing them with better and nicer items.
I rent it per room to students going to the nearby college. It cashflows great. I plan on keeping it for the foreseeable future.
@Jessica Davis when you rent per room do the students only pay for the 8 months they are at school? I am considering a 7 bedroom SFH near a university so I have started thinking about this approach.
Each tenant is on a separate lease for 1 year. I do try and have the leases start and end near the beginning of a new semester so its easier to fill when one leaves. I would check your local laws and make sure that many unrelated people are allowed to rent from you in one house. But I highly recommend this strategy.
Real Estate Entrepreneur · Mid West, East Coast · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
@Charlie Anne Feeling like I replied to this post already, but My first was a 4 bed Single I bought at market for $24,900 back in 2015 I believe. Tenant was with me up until last month. Rent at start was $800 and went up to $885 over the years. Since tenant moved out I got a new tenant in there at $900 per month plus tenant is responsible for water. No long term maintenance thank God as I bought it off the MLS rehabbed.
Investor · NJ | PR · Member since 2014 · 39 posts · 9 votes
6y
Back in 2006, at the ripe old age of 27 I purchased a very large two family for $468,000 that had $12,000+ a year in taxes...Welcome to NJ real estate baby! I put 0% down (beast mode) and got a $10K seller's concession and oh, I was the agent and got paid $11K in RE commissions. Still own it to this day, took 14 years, lots of sweat equity, psycho cat-lady neighbor calling town repeatedly for no reason causing problems, random roommates off craigslist (separate story lol) BUT it cashflows today to the tune of almost $2,000 a month. Currently appraises for $750,000...One thing I wish I knew was I should have taken the smaller apartment and lived alone instead of the upstairs apartment with roommates. It was the bedrock of my investing and was the first step in building my foundation.
Rental Property Investor · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2019 · 146 posts · 77 votes
6y
@Charlie Anne you can do it! Once your mind is made up you'll find a way. We were interested in real estate but only talked about it. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and I kid you not, 2 weeks later we had our first fourplex under contract in Eastern Arizona. It was a seller carry back deal, Purchase price of $200,000, with $25k down with he remaining amount be carried at 3%. Still own it and it cash flows $800-1000/month and is now valued around $280,000 with little value add done to it in just over 2 years. Purchased with out ANY of our own money.
Looking back, one thing I wish we did differently was budgeted for the renovations up front. We could have had all 4 units renovated in the first 4 months and maximized our cash flow and increased the value significantly faster thus increasing our total ROI.
Investor · Campton, NH · Member since 2010 · 285 posts · 143 votes
6y
Mine was a 6-unit back in 2003 for $200k. $20k down and owner financing for the balance. We held it for a couple of years and ended up selling it for a $100k profit before taxes, which we 1031 exchanged into some other rental properties and began to grow our portfolio. I wish we had paid off our house mortgage at the time because we would have still had money left over to put down on another building and had no mortgage payment! That deal was my first exposure to wholesaling because the guy we sold it to flipped his contract to another investor-buyer and made a $60k assignment probably with one phone call! :)