First investment property! Took action!!

First investment property! Took action!!

Ponchatoula, LA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 39 votes

Hello BP!!! 

Well after many, many months of reading and educating myself from the wealth of knowledge here my wife and I have purchased our first investment property! 

Ruby Door Properties, a brief history: I like many others on here began when I discovered BP and was impressed by the amount of education I could get at zero cost to me and was blown away by the generosity of others helping in the success of others. I began educating myself and listened to every podcast a few times and finally got the courage to presnt my findings and plan to my wife. We like many others were very risk averse and lived to the fullest of our means just staying afloat and never having lots of extra money. Once I explained everything to her she understood the black and white numbers REI works on. We're both involved in business for our jobs and have had a small business of our own for a number of years, so we understand the numbers fully.

Next up we partnered with a friend who is an agent and also an investor. He showed us his proprties and drove us through the neighborhood he invest in and explained why he invest there. We looked for several months at properties but didnt find any that fit our criteria. We were driving for dollars one sunday and came across another property we thought would work, contacted my buddy on Monday and the property has already been locked up by another investor. Bummed we went to his office to scour the MLS as he had another agent in his office that had a property listed that was dropping bi-weekly. So we ran some numbers and came up with an offer number that we thought the property might realistically sell for put in an offer well below that price to gauge the sellers desperation.

Ruby Door Properties Name: My wife's favorite color is red, upon a quick search online Red Door Properties was in use already. We were in the car talking real estate returning home from a family trip and Ruby by The Kaiser Chiefs(yeah we love alt/indie music) was on the radio and my wife told me the story of her Aunt Ruby, a Hollywood type who was always glamorous in all things and also sold real estate for a living. So we instantly thought we'd call the business Ruby Door Properties and yes all of our doors will be painted Ruby Red! 

The Property: 1968 pier and beam house, 1344 sq ft. Agent had it listed as a 3/1. Listed in May at 42.9 dropping the price bi-weekly until we saw it at 29.9, we put in an offer of 10k and a few days later the seller came back at 19K. We put in another offer at 17K and it was accepted! We were stoked!

 When we viewed the property we discovered an unfinished masterbath(this could be the reason for listing as 3/1) and knew this would be a huge value add. The master bedroom, master bath and laundry room were part of an addition to the original house. One of the original bedrooms off the living room was opened up and made into a formal dining. We closed up this formal dining room and now we have a 4/2!  

So now you're thinking, what kind of house can you get for 17k, really?? So here she is sitting on her 150 X 50 lot. These befores are pretty rough but saw through all the clutter and could see the potential. First off the floorplan was awesome, split floor plan with a true master suite, vaulted ceiling in the living/kitchen/dining area which was all open like modern homes. Comes complete with an abandoned car in the front yard! 

Laundry

Master Bedroom(after cleaning out tons of clothes/furniture/etc measures 19.5 X 13!! plus the walkin closet

Unfinished Masterbath including brand new tub/shower combo! 

And the sweat equity begins!! 

Filled a 20 yard dumpster in 3 days!

Buh-bye old nasty kitchen!

Framing up Bedroom 4 

Scope of work:

Needs to be leveled and have a beam replaced between the kitchen and hall bath.

Needs a new roof(and resheath the original side of the house, 2/3 of house)

Full electrical update

Full plumbing update

Add central HVAC(was window units only before)

Full kitchen replacement including appliances

Sheetrock 3/4 of house due to damage 

Full paint interior and exterior

Replace most windows

We're giving ourselves 6 months to complete this project. I have a friend who is a GC so he will be helping me out with the things that require a liscenced contractor. 

Our plan to put in tons of sweat equity and try to come in at 50K including acquisition price. This should rent to 850/900 a month and monthly bills will be around 475 a month, cashflowing 375/425 a month. We are using the BRRRR strategy and will get this rented and after seasoning it will pull our cash out and repeat. Our plan is to get 10 properties online in 10 years and then begin to pay them off the next 10 years so in roughly 20-22 years when we retire we should have 9-10K a month flowing in from our properties. We plan to self manage these units to maximize cashflow.

My hope is to post update on a weekly basis as we are working a night or two during the week and working 6-8 hours each Sat & Sun., GC will get his work done weekdays. I hope you will follow us along our journey and perhaps be inspired to take action and get your RE investment career going. All feedback and suggestions are welcome!! Thanks BP community!! 

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Real Estate Investor · Acton, CA · Member since 2014 · 109 posts · 73 votes
9y

@Derek Duplechin I just built a brand new house, in Los Angeles county, and I didn't run any phone lines at all. We have ATT for our internet and phone, but they ran a wireless phone system called U-verse. We plug our home phone line into the back of the wifi router. Anyway LA county didn't require us to put in phone lines, they approved our plans without any. 

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  • Ponchatoula, LA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 39 votes
    9y
    Thanks guys! In the home stretch, currently I've got a crew in there knocking out the punch list. We have decided to flip the house to upgrade to a better neighborhood and a more turn key property. I'm going to be all in around 68k and will be listing the property for 99,900 in the next 2 weeks. I will post the final numbers on the property when we sell it. I'm hoping we sell in the mid to low 90's, houses in the local market sell on average for 97% of asking price according to my agent/investor friend who got me in this deal. Our plan after the sale will be to do a 1031 exchange and purchase a B, B+ neighborhood property in the 120-30k range. We just feel like this will be a more comfortable space to work in and not have quite the worry that comes along with low income properties and the tenants that rent them. At the end of the day we've learned a ton of lessons and we're thankful that we won't lose any money. It may not be a lot of money to walk away with for all the time and sweat we put in but it gives us some cash to get into a better property and that's what really matters.
  • Atlanta, GA · Member since 2017 · 5 posts · 3 votes
    9y
    This is great! Awesome job thanks for sharing this journey! Guys like me just starting out need this!
  • Ponchatoula, LA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 39 votes
    9y
    My agent just called and we got an offer on the house! I don't want to jinx it so I'll follow up as we progress through the selling process. Say some prayers for us!
  • Ponchatoula, LA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 39 votes
    9y
    Ok finally get to update you all on this project. Last post was an offer on the house. Offer was 99k(listed at 99,900) with 5k in closing assistance, we countered at 99,900 and 5k in closing assistance and they accepted. A couple weeks go by and they ask for an elevation certificate so they can get an estimate on flood insurance. I spend $300 on a cert and the flood comes back at 1100 a year pushing the buyer over their debt to income ratio.....:-/ so the deal falls through. We relist the property and have 3 showings in a week and the following week an offer of 104k with 6k in closing assistance comes in and we jump on it. This buyer is much more qualified and has no issues with financing. 30 days later we are at the closing table(on 8/31) and the house is sold! We were so happy that a nice family was getting to have their first home and we turned a neighborhood eyesore into a really awesome house. I know you want to see the numbers, right? Selling price: 104k, after commissions, closing assistance, home warranty we got a check for 89,414 All in purchase price plus reno $66k Carrying cost: Interest only loan: 1020 Electricity and water: 600 Insurance: 1000 Private loan: 39,000 401k loan: 25,000 Profit: 22,794 Not too bad for our first flip, we most certainly have realized that we don't want to dive this deep on a project ever again. We may not even ever flip again but this gave us some true sweat equity to get in the game and begin our investment into real estate. I wouldn't change a thing and love all the lessons we learned, plus it was wonderful getting to work with my dad so much on this project! We've recently had one of the kids move off to college so we are going to use the profits from the flip to downsize our primary to a new construction 3/2 that will make a great rental in about 8 years. This will allow me to reduce the note on my primary by 225 a month. I'll sell the current primary and use the equity in it to purchase at least one B-B+ neighborhood rental(130-150k)that should cash flow 4-500 a month with 20% down. I'll stockpile that cash flow and mortgage savings until I have enough for another B neighborhood rental. We really feel like these types of rental will be best for us as the clientele is usually better and the houses are certainly newer with (hopefully) fewer issues. I want to thank you all who have posted words of wisdom or cheered us on as we made our way down this path, it certainly was nice to share it with you all. Stay focused my friends!
  • Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2017 · 32 posts · 18 votes
    9y

    How much was your labor worth?   im of the opinion wo some kind of edge flipping isnt possible for the avg abdul, mohammod or haboodi......lol.

    edge meaning you are the GC, or you are some kind of tradesman.

    WOW.   so you know where one of those $500 profit  rent houses, after putting down 20% ,are that Del Walmsey so often touts.   I keep thinking he is insane......lol.

  • Ponchatoula, LA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 39 votes
    9y
    I definitely had an advantage in knowing how to do a lot of the work myself and really only hired out stuff that required a licensed contractor. In my area if I purchase a 3/2 B+ neighborhood house for let's say 150k, put 20% down, mortgage payment is 567 plus insurance/taxes brings it around 800 a month, this will rent for 1300 a month easily.
  • Rental Property Investor · Ft Mitchell, KY · Member since 2016 · 47 posts · 10 votes
    9y

    Very cool thread to read over today.  Not really fair to read this in 30 minutes when it was 11 months of your life.  Great progress reports were put together.  Glad everything worked out in the end and good luck on the next one.

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