I bought my first rental for $4,000.

I bought my first rental for $4,000.

Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $4,000

Cash invested: $17,000

Bought this baby for $4,000 on Hubzu.com in November 2018. Rehabbed from Washington State. Was done and rented by March 2019. Used cash so it is all paid off and now renting for $650 per month.

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

Honestly, I had been looking to buy a foreclosure in Washington State for 2 years and finally gave up. I went to Hubzu and sorted price from low to high. This property was one of the cheapest foreclosures in the nation. I bid and I won.

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

Hubzu.com, I was the only one who bid.

How did you finance this deal?

I used cash

How did you add value to the deal?

Fixed roof, re-ran electrical, new electrical panel, new flooring throughout (ceramic tile and laminate), new plumbing in bathroom and kitchen, everything in kitchen new, painted.

What was the outcome?

Rented at $650 in 4 months

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Every time a contractor was paid, they disappeared! I would definitely be more cautious about contractors and I never made a trip down to see the home, so next time will walk the house before buying. I got super lucky!
Mistakes I made: Laying ceramic tile instead of linoleum. Maybe should have done carpet instead of laminant. The house is 2,100 sq ft so even cheap flooring was pricy.
Positives: The jobs were itemized with the contractor and I only paid each line on completion. This worked out r

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

I represented myself and the other agent was pretty terrible on a $4,000 home.

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Rental Property Investor · Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 6k+ posts · 9k+ votes
7y

I just bought a big single family 2 bed for 10k recently so I share your joy . I'll have about 2k in rehab . These cheap houses are just too good to pass up . The ROI is insane if you can play the game right . Don't listen to the naysayers or frightened people ,Buy up as many as you can and sit on them . Rehab them right ,get a good tenant in and keep buying them . Your going to have people tell you that your foolish and taking on risks buying at this price point ..but put the blinders on ,stay laser focused and repeat the process

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  • Rental Property Investor · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2015 · 222 posts · 126 votes
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins Sounds like a good tenant to have! You certainly look a leap of faith. Houses in that neighborhood can be pretty rough, but if you passed occupancy and are cash flowing, nice work and congtats!

  • Rental Property Investor · Savage, MN · Member since 2016 · 202 posts · 61 votes
    7y

    Hi @Kelsi Dockins, it is still considerably booming and especially in the Twin Cities. My Realtor and I moved my searches more to the suburbs myself to try and locate some lower priced SFH's about 10 minutes or so from Downtown Minneapolis but the prices are still a bit high for what I could rent them for and make any decent returns.

  • Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2017 · 523 posts · 476 votes
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins this is fantastic! Great work. @Sammy Lyon this makes $650 rent for $37K per door look like nothing special :-) 

  • Member since 2019 · 9 posts · 2 votes
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins, that's so awesome! You're story is so encouraging! How did you find and vet a tenant on your own, through an ad? And curious how you arranged a walk-through to give them keys, etc? I'm planning on doing a long-distance rental and working through these points myself.

  • Investor · Wichita, KS · Member since 2017 · 584 posts · 813 votes
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins love it. I give you less than one year to do it again, and then again and again. This one deal won’t change the trajectory of your life but 10 will. I’d try to buy on the same block or very very close to this first one, use the same contractor. If it’s working, keep it working. I like that you are using all cash, it’s the best way to get started in low income housing. You’re going to run into issues along the way, stay focused, keep pushing. Be bigger than your problems.

  • Rental Property Investor · Memphis, TN · Member since 2013 · 61 posts · 21 votes
    7y

    Going to check that site out. Thanks for the info!

  • Wholesaler · Springville, UT · Member since 2015 · 7 posts · 1 vote
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins

    Great job keep up the great work

  • Rental Property Investor · Discovery Bay, CA · Member since 2017 · 26 posts · 15 votes
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins

    This is awesome! How did you find your contractor and how’d you know you could trust them?

  • Contractor · 92843, CA - California · Member since 2018 · 32 posts · 4 votes
    7y

    Very inspiring as I continue my education towards my first deal.  Thank you for sharing.  Congrats on having the drive and courage to pull the trigger.  

  • Rental Property Investor · West Bend, WI · Member since 2015 · 931 posts · 598 votes
    7y

    Congrats, I have done my share of online auctions, as well as Sheriffs auctions, and have purchased several sub $10K properties. The key is to stay diligent and keep searching and be ready to pull the trigger when a deal arises. congrats 

  • Member since 2019 · 9 posts · 3 votes
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins how did you go about finding contractors? Any recommended ones? I am looking to do a fixer upper in the suburbs close to Minneapolis as well. Thank you!

  • David OunanianBusiness Member
    Real Estate Broker · St. Louis, MO · Member since 2017 · 380 posts · 195 votes
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins congratulations on your first rental!  I know you probably already know this but that is in an area with extremely high violent crime and why the properties sell for $4,000.  Wish you luck and make sure to keep a conservative amount for reserves!

    CASHFLOW NATION535 Reviews
  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @David Ounanian Yeah, I was a little nervous about that. The tenant is from the area. His grandma and mom live a couple streets down. He kinda gave me the scoop on the neighborhood. I guess each street has it's own vibes. Luckily the street this home is on, everyone owns and they are all older owners that care a ton about their lawns! I know I got lucky! 

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Kejin Wang I found my contractor on craigslist and any other contractors I found on Thumbtack.com. I probably won't be using the electrician that I found again, he took 3 months to fix the electrical but was only out at the house a couple days. If you use thumbtack, read the reviews!

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Scott Schultz Thanks, Scott! Any sub $10K problems I should worry about? I haven't been able to find a lender who will lend under $50,000. 

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Jay Dang Thank you! You will get there! 

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Eric Kulling I found the contractor on craigslist and the electrician and roofer on thumbtack.com. I read the reviews on their jobs. I also thought that all of them were licensed and bonded but turns out none of them were! I took a leap of faith on trusting them and the job took about a month longer then I projected partly due to weather and partly due to every time I paid a contractor they disappeared for a couple days. But the labor was insanely cheap and my GC was going to be my tenant so he wanted everything done right and wanted to start renting right away. 

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Account Closed Anytime!

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Ian Dulan Thank you!

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Joshua Savage Let me know if you have any questions on it!

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Jonathan R.Thanks for the inspiration ^__^ I am getting restless and want to do another one but decided to slow down thinking something HAS to go wrong with this one. So far so good! I have been looking on the same block and there is a duplex for sale for $14,000 but no pictures or access to the inside. Looking into that one today!

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y
    Originally posted by @Sarah Krausse:

    @Kelsi Dockins, that's so awesome! You're story is so encouraging! How did you find and vet a tenant on your own, through an ad? And curious how you arranged a walk-through to give them keys, etc? I'm planning on doing a long-distance rental and working through these points myself.

    Thank you!! The contractor actually became the tenant. I didn't do a background check but he mentioned some discrepancies from over 20 years ago that have been holding him back from getting into a rental. I trusted him to get the work done at his quote and he trusted me to rent it to him when the work was done. There were lots of leaps of faith on this one and I don't know if I would do it again this way but the labor was incredibly cheap and he was also at the house a lot so that gave me a piece of mind that someone vested was watching over the place. 

  • Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    @Shiva Bhaskar Thank you! Now just gotta make sure they pay and on time!

  • Investor · Wichita, KS · Member since 2017 · 584 posts · 813 votes
    7y
    Originally posted by @Kelsi Dockins:

    @Jonathan R.Thanks for the inspiration ^__^ I am getting restless and want to do another one but decided to slow down thinking something HAS to go wrong with this one. So far so good! I have been looking on the same block and there is a duplex for sale for $14,000 but no pictures or access to the inside. Looking into that one today!

     Duplexes and single family homes are a different animal in a low income area in the Midwest. I own both. Unlike Seattle, we are spoiled on single family homes. The duplex will have higher turnover and be more of a pain in your butt. I would stick to single family homes in an area like this as they are the Mecca of what people want to rent. I also like your idea of placing renters that have already been living in the area, I do the same. Best of luck.

  • Rental Property Investor · Albany, NY · Member since 2018 · 55 posts · 65 votes
    7y

    @Kelsi Dockins. I wish you the best. This seems very risky as an out of state investment. Any opportunity to sell to the tenant? Might be a quick way to double your money and unload the risk.

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