Welcome back to episode 11 of the WIIRE podcast! In this week’s episode we’re sharing with you about our very first (ever) rentals; how we found them, how we managed them, and if we still have them in our portfolio.
Amelia’s First Rental Property
Amelia’s first rental property was a triplex in a small town in her hometown, with a population of around 5,000 people. It was a 2-story property with 3 units; two bedrooms, one bathroom on the first floor, and two units with one bedroom and one bathroom each on the 2nd floor. Amelia found this property listing on Zillow and really, only by accident. She typically had only been searching for single-family properties and didn’t realize she had the multi-family filter selected when she came across this property.
She scheduled a time to walk through it and was taken aback by the awful tenants living in the residence. So she wrote what she now calls a ‘love letter’ to the owner stating how she was excited to purchase a property in her hometown and be able to give back by providing quality housing to the residents of her hometown. With the list price sitting at $99,000 she submitted an offer of $65,000 and after some negotiation they landed on a purchase price of $78,000. Amelia purchased the property for all-cash because the appraisal was taking a long time to come back so she made it an all-cash purchase with the intent of refinancing into a mortgage right when the appraisal could be completed.
This wound up being a blessing in disguise situation because the property needed some work and she was able to make them to the property before the appraiser came out. When they finally did come out to do the appraisal it appraised for $92,000. Part of Amelia’s contingency on this offer was that the property must be sold vacant, meaning no inherited tenants upon closing.
With only 45 days until they closed the tenants moved out and Amelia ran the numbers again on this triplex (crazy for a first rental!) and knew there was no way she wouldn’t make money on this property.
It’s been nearly two years and taking the risk on her first-time rental property as a flip, wound up being a huge success and now cash flows around $800-900 per month.
Grace’s First Rental Property
After looking for a few weeks Grace and her boyfriend purchased their first rental property when she saw a property for sale, called the seller, and asked for a list of properties they were interested in selling. He sent over a list of about 30+ properties and was trying to sell them down to about 8 or so. She told him she wanted to see the grossest property he had.
He did, and it was absolutely disgusting. An absolute gut.
Backing up a few steps to her Buy Box, Grace knew they needed to BRRR because they had the money for a down payment and for the repairs, but did not want to buy cash. They also knew they wanted it to be a single-family property, and the town Grace lives near. They also did not want inherited tenants so they could start work right away. Plus, they were going to DIY the project.
When it came time to start working on the property it seemed to be even more disgusting than they initially thought and found more trash than they could have ever imagined possible. After purchasing with 20% down, they told their bank they would be refinancing it ASAP so the bank put them on a construction loan so they only had to pay quarterly interest on it until they refinanced it.
It took about 6 months (which was 3 months over their initially estimated timeframe) and between $35,000 and $36,000 (when they had only estimated $23,000), which added a significant about of stress to the entire project.
One of Grace’s ‘fondest’ memories (and biggest lessons) of this particular project was that when they were roughly one month out from completion, they made a schedule of what needed to be done. The entire 3-story property needed painting (doors, walls, ceilings, trim, you name it). She scheduled herself 3 days to paint which quickly, and painstakingly, turned into one month.
Their hard work paid off and was roughly $120,000 and when all was said and done the property appraised for $185,000. They pulled out roughly 70% equity and walked away with around $8,000 extra to use on their next deal.
Today, Grace still has this property in her portfolio (renter occupied) and has learned some major lessons to take along her REI journey.
If you’ve enjoyed hearing our stories in this episode head over to Instagram and give us each a follow and see what we’re up to now!
Catch you in the next episode!
Resources:
WIIRE 121: How to Combine Short & Midterm Rental Strategies with Kelsey Porter
WIIRE 120: What Should You Be Looking For When You Do a Property Walk-Through?
WIIRE 119: Balancing CEO and Stay-At-Home Mom Life with Kristen Witalka
WIIRE 118: What Financial Tasks Should I Be Doing Weekly, Monthly, & Yearly in my Rental Business?
WIIRE 117: Small and Mighty Real Estate Investing with Chad Carson
WIIRE 116: How to Use Free Marketing for Your Rental Business
WIIRE 115: How to Implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System in Your Business with Maya Bovshow
WIIRE 114: Our CEO Roles as Full Time Real Estate Investors
WIIRE 113: Fourplex From Hell: Resilience as a Rookie Investor with Katie Hofer
WIIRE 112: Legal Contracts You Need in Your Real Estate Business
WIIRE 111: Lessons Learned While Self Managing Rental Properties
WIIRE 110: Ask A&G: Midterm Rental Frequently Asked Questions
WIIRE 109: House-hacking New Build Homes Tax Free with Monica Fullerton
WIIRE 108: Best Tenant Screening Practices
WIIRE 107: Starting Your Real Estate Journey At Any Age with Liz Connelly
WIIRE 106: Increasing Your Profitability without Buying More Real Estate
WIIRE 105: Midterm Rental Operations with Jamie Banks
WIIRE 104: Handling Maintenance Requests Like a Pro
WIIRE 103: Midterm Rental Co-Hosting and Credit Card Hacking with Jaina Pallasigui
WIIRE 102: What Can You Expect At A WIIRE Retreat?
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