Hello all-
I am eager…ready…and interested in learning. If you have a moment, what was your first deal?
No money/no credit?
Investment/Cash flow property?
Single/multiple unit house?
I would love to hear your story.
AZWishingWell
Small apartment building where we got a great deal by taking money out on my credit card to get the down payment and initial rehab money. 6-units, 2 of which were vacant when we bought. The building is in much better shape and worth roughly double now than when we bought a few years ago. That was the start and gave us the experience and confidence to get bigger.
Hi,
My first property was bought in 1980! It was a 7 unit property in a San Diego beach community I aquired subject to! I bought it no money down for what was owed on the property as the guy I bought it from had just refinanced it months before we made a deal. I was making about $600 a month in positive cash flow after cost's and expenses.
GR
My first property was an old 2-bedroom house with a studio unit behind it in Encanto, a San Diego suburb.
The price was $24,000 with owner financing. I think I had to come up with 10% downpayment. I worked nights and rented a room in a house in order to save for the downpayment. My little daughter and I “hotbedded” that twin bed in the rented room. She slept there nights, I came home at 7 AM and sent her to school, and then crawled exhausted into her still-warm bed. I worked every extra shift that I could and saved every nickel.
I just wanted my own place! No more rent! I was still short money for the downpayment so I borrowed $1200 from my brother-in-law who borrowed it from the Navy Federal Credit Union. I paid him back $100/month over the next year.
I took over the tenant in the little cottage, who became my new babysitter. She paid $120/month in rent, and my mortgage payment was $185/month. A good deal all around. I bought a cheap place because I didn’t want a huge mortgage debt keeping me in a job I didn’t like.
Community Reinvestment money at a low interest rate later funded a new 3-bedroom, 2 bath house on that lot. The old 2-bedroom was torn down.
A few years ago I put my nose to the wind and sensed that the San Diego market was going to crash. I gave notice to my years-long HUD tenant and listed the Encanto house for $365,000. Had multiple offers and sold it at that price.
That money, after taxes, went into my furnished rental house business here. Where houses are MUCH cheaper. Thank you, California.
Furnishedowner
So great… I do have the opportunity to take from a credit card, I would take the risk.
Owner financing…good option. With the current credit mess, are there people selling that way?
When I read ads - owner carry - is that what that means.
love it!
my first property was a single story but furnished house , i had it on credit and earn handsome amount through it .
My first investment property was my own home. I purchased my primary residence using VA 100% financing, then turned the property into a rental when I moved out of state.
My first deal was a sandwich lease option about 4 years ago. Soon afterward the market crashed so the tenant/buyer didn’t exercise the option, but I still made $5k on the upfront option fee plus about $120/month cashflow for a year. The seller called me from a we-buy-houses bandit sign.
DaveT I would LOVE to pick your brain. My husband is military and I thought it was impossible to make money on a property bought with VA. Did you have to rehab the house at all? Once you moved out of state did you have a property management company take care of the tenant?
A VA loan or normal bank loan doesn’t dictate the profitability of the deal. The VA loan just helps you get in with less money down.
Great posts!!
Wishing Well…is that in connection with the wishing well in Sedona?
Mine was a lease option that I had tried and tried for a few months to figure out how to properly market to sellers.
I finally landed this house with an out of state owner, put the figures together, put a sing in the yard, adn spent about 2 hours cleaning and making the house presentable. I had $3500 in my hand in about 3 weeks, which at the time was more than I had ever seen at one time. I actually felt guilty at first, because it WAS so easy. You’d think I’d be ecstatic, but I felt bad because that was more than I would make in 6 weeks adn here I stuck a sing in the yard, ran a vacuum, some spot cleaning, and boom…$3500.
HELLO Everyone!
My first property was when I was 22years old. I put up ONE bandit sign in my town next to a busy intersection. JUST ONE. A few days later a lady called me saying that she really had to sell her rental house because her tenants screwed it all up and she couldn’t make the payments. IT was in foreclosure, so I said ok I’ll be right over to look at the property! " I didn’t really have any idea what I was doing" I looked up the property tax records on my counties local web-site found out it was worth 155k or so ( Didn’t know how to do comps yet). On the way to her house I stopped by my title company and picked up a purchase contract. Met the lady @ the property, and listened to her story, then we walked through her house.
Just looked like it needed some new flooring and some kitchen cabinets to me. So I said I’ll BUY it CASH for 97grand wrote it down on the contract I picked up earlier she agreed and we signed!
When I got home I started to panic because I had absolutely no money at all ( 5 or 10 dollars in my wallet).
I also had no Cash buyers to whole sale it too. So in my panic I went outside for a walk to cool off. There was a couple of guys that were building a new tri-plex around the corner from my apartment complex. So I yelled out to them “hey hows it goin guys!” and started talking with them about their new project and how good it looked ;). Then at the end of our conversation I said hey I’ve got a really great deal on a fixer upper if you would like to take a look at it give let me know! Gave them my phone number and went on my way.
Few hours later I got a call from them saying they wanted to look @ the property I had. So I gave them the address and we met there. I walked around the property listening to them talk about the repairs it might need. Finely when they finished they asked me how much I needed for the property and I said 101grand including my fee of 4grand ( 4grand I just pulled of the top of my heard at the moment). They said ok we will give you a call back later. Next day they had the cash ready for my title company and I made an assigment of 4thoughsand dollars. I was completely shocked it actually worked.
I still keep in contact with those guys today, sell them a contract every once in a while.
Well that’s my first deal in a short story hope you enjoyed 
:shocked
That is an AMAZING story Aces!
Thanks RE-Lab-Rat just proves how easy it can be to make money in real estate if you get out there and put forth some honest effort