Nightmare Turned Best Case Outcome

[Ben Kowallis]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $395,000
Cash invested: $17,000

This house was in pretty rough shape when I bought it. The fence was leaning all over the place, there was garbage filled 4 ft deep in the air vents, and normal maintenance on almost anything was never done.

The neighbors one one side were disliked by the whole neighborhood. During renovations, they through a brick through my window and broke in. They shot a gun off in the front yard and I was able to get them evicted.

Now it runs smoothly and I love owning it!

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

It was a good neighborhood with only 2 houses that looked to be in rough shape.

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

This was the height of the market when everything was getting bid up and under contract within a couple days. It was sitting on the market for about 2 weeks and I offered $5k less than appraisal value.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Replaced all the flooring, remodeled the bathroom, fixed the fence, and got the bad neighbors to leave.

What was the outcome?

It now runs great with no issues and great tenants

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Neighbors are important to look at when buying a home. I don't want to be doing extensive work on my own houses anymore. I'd rather spend the money on someone who knows what they're doing and can get it done fast.