Rental Property Investor · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2016 · 161 posts · 221 votes
My wife and I had been interested in purchasing a rental property for about a year with the intent of making this a business. She's a teacher, I'm an engineer and we have little faith in the future of Social Security / 401k stability. So bring on the house viewings! After many viewings we decided to look at a 'slightly' downtrodden 1954 ranch with the right square footage.
Notice the fancy red-white-blue spray painted garage windows! Seems like we may have an artist on the premises (more on that). After viewing the place twice, researching the rent comps and recently sold comp values for the area we decided to purchase it. Here is my wife after closing...inspecting her snazzy new $60,000 purchase (so much better than an escalade).
Your wife and I are kindred spirits. If things don't work out between the two of you, please give her my number. She and I would be a match made in heaven because clearly she knows what hell looks like.
Lee Fahy Great post and commentary. Chris Purcell Sounds like you guys are doing great. It's always tough. It will get better at some point if you stick with it. Thing is it gets tougher all over again with the next house. At some stage you can delegate and let someone else deal with some headaches. That's a big help.
Monday (fingers crossed) I'm selling my first buy and hold rental. I was pretty gullible. I bought a house that had been slap shod renovated and I then had to do everything over. At one point I ran out of money 80k in. I had taken up all the joists on the first floor and I was living in the house with no water, prices of plywood here and there to walk on and big holes open to cellar in most of my apt. Well I never gave up and now someone is paying me more than double what I paid. That and I was collecting really good rents for 10 years.
Keep up the hard work. It will pay off.
@Tetsuo Wakino; My life partner and I only contracted the roof work (5K). Everything else is us, floors, paint, cabinets, sheetrock and tape, whatever. We bought the house for 61250 after closing costs and have 19K into it at this point, we budgeted 25K.
Just so we are clear, my +1 and I had NO IDEA what we were in for here. Haha, just totally clueless when we jumped in deep.
Do you remember the "Zombie Flips" BP Podcast episode? I'd take a look at it and take a note from his playbook by having a Catholic Priest (exorcist?) come by the place and bless it. Bad things have a way of "sticking around" sometimes. Just a thought.
Update: 5pm; ------ Still no drug money found, I AM up to a whopping 19 petrified mice with a sweet spot of 6 behind one piece of paneling in between 2x4s.
Congratulations Lee....not on buying the brothel, but on marrying above your station. She puts up with your sense of humor, does light to medium construction work, and has the balance to walk on 5 gallon buckets....quite the keeper. :-)
Good Luck on the drug money hunt...be sure to check the vents. It will at least add to your mouse collection even if you don't find cash. In 20 years, after much success just think about how much you will have embellished this story. Even if you break even it will have been worth it for a story you can tell for a lifetime.
Good Luck and Gods Speed
PS. I dont know how you pass up the black light in the basement....it is a once in a lifetime opportunity...just saying.
Mouse Valhalla; I think there were six in there.... I didn't exactly get in close and count. @John Nachtigall ---- In ten years this will have grown to "THERE MUST HAVE BEEN TWENTY IN ONE SPOT KIDS!"
I am beginning to realize my threshold for gross is increasing.