It’s been a while since I have visited the site, and it looks great…I have been busy working my full-time (and then some) job while always hunting for good real estate investments here in the Houston area.
Well, for the past few years my wife and I have been living in a property which was our first. It was intended to be a rental property. Two weeks ago we nailed another deal, and I am happy to say that we will be moving into a giant, beautiful five-bedroom home (with a big, old jacuzzi in the back yard) that we picked up as a HUD foreclosure on the extended listing.
The price was $60,000, and it also comes with some repair escrow for a new roof. The repairs are very, very minor, but I think we will spend a little more to really spruce it up. We have determined that without the sprucing it will be worth $100,000. We plan to spend approximately $6,000 to deck the place out (I do the work myself), live in it for about a year and a half, and then sell.
Timing is everything in real estate investing
Normally, a house like this one would have had quite a number of bidders, but guess what; it was the holiday season. Nobody bid during the week of Christmas, and we were the first bid to hit the office as soon as it made the extended list. At first, I was kind of concerned that we hadn’t made the deadline to bid on it, but it turned out that when it hit the extended list, they dropped the price by $7,000!
We had an excellent agent who figured this was going to happen, and he was right on the money. Our bid came in at $375 over the minimum allowable bid price. Best part: It continues to be so easy picking up properties and watching my net worth grow. Not bad for 26 years old I think. Much thanks to all of you whose wisdom, as well as encouragement, continues to assist so many of us.