My first House... In Niagara Falls NY

This may be as creative a deal as any 21 year old could ever make. I was a bartender in my Dad's bar and struck up a conversation with a guy. He was yapping on about how the city was finally taking his house on back taxes and was happy to get rid of "The Monster".

Being a young 21 year old investor at the time I jumped in and asked him what it would take to get the house from him. A few shots of tequila and $500 later we had an appointment in the morning with my lawyer.

His taxes were $8,500.00. I took out a personal loan of $10k from my credit union and paid them. I used the extra $1500 for the renovation costs.

What was my lesson in this first deal? I had a lot of people - family and friends - that tried to deter me from buying it. On a side note. Never ever ever listen to the people that are around you if they do not think or invest like you. I had the following people trying to talk me out of buying the property ( i will also show you why they were all wrong at the end of the post)

The lawyer

My ex wife

My Dad

My ex mother in law --- bless her heart

All of my friends

The owner of 0the house next door ( I think he wanted to snatch it at auction)

I kept that house for 22 years and rented it out for $600 per month.

This was a huge learning experience on how to manage people, neighbors, tenants .... OMG i am stilled owed about 10k total from all the tenants that were not properly managed, taxes , tax exemption programs, bad government, good government, utilities companies that will try to empty your pockets when your tenants dont pay their bills.

But most of all i learn how to take 10k and turn it into roughly $158,400 net profit in 22 years....

Not bad for a first deal

Tony