The $65K House... Or Is It?

[Drago Stanimirovic]

I had a conversation with an investor recently that stuck with me.

He kept coming back to one thing: "I bought it for only $65,000."

I bet he mentioned that number five or six times.

Finally I asked, "Okay... how much is the rehab?"

He paused. "Probably around $240,000."

That changed the entire conversation.

Not because it was a bad deal. It actually had potential.

But until that moment, we weren't even talking about the same project.

He was talking about the purchase. I was thinking about the investment.

One of the things I enjoy most about working with investors is watching that shift happen. At first, everyone is excited about getting a property cheap. After they've done a few deals, they barely mention the purchase price. They talk about the exit, the timeline, the budget, and what could go wrong.

It's a completely different mindset.

Funny enough, some of the best deals I've seen started with a price that didn't impress anyone. And some of the worst started with, "You won't believe what I paid for this place."

Is it just something I've started paying attention to after being around these deals for years?