West Hartford Buy and Hold

[Tom Carroll]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $146,000
Cash invested: $15,000

Buy and hold 4 bed, 2 full bath home in West Hartford, CT

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Was going to buy this at 23 years old and rent rooms out to friends.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

On the MLS - did inspections and renegotiated after that.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional first time homebuyer with 10% down.

How did you add value to the deal?

Lived there for a few years, updated the bedrooms, cleaned up the yard, didn't have to do much. It will need a new kitchen one day.

What was the outcome?

Buy and hold

Lessons learned? Challenges?

1 - Before you move from your primary residence, look to refinance and see if you can get a better interest rate because after you move that is no longer your primary residence.

2 - If you have a conventional mortgage with PMI - you can get your PMI to drop off early with an updated appraisal. The mortgage servicer will order a brokers price opinion and that could provide you a new value that might increase your equity in the deal.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Unfortunately not. This deal made me want to get into real estate to provide better service to others buying their first home.

[Brent Kane]

Nice deal Tom! This looks like a steal for West Hartford! You must have solid equity in it at this point. When did you buy?

Also, regarding your answer to the last question what specifically went wrong in the process?