Our first real estate investment was a lot that was owned by a family member on a mosquito ridden area on the Cape Fear River. It was a 1/2 acre, and it was water-front, but no where I would ever want to live. I was not real excited about the purchase, but it was only a 2,000 investment. I guess if I didn't like it, no one else would either. But, two years later we decided to see how much we could get for it. Well the lot next door had sold for almost 50,000. So…we thought we should sell.

We had decided after selling the land that we would do a 1031 tax deferred exchange. I never knew how much fun and stressful it would be finding replacement properties. We looked everywhere. We spent weeks searching MLS listings, newspaper FSBOs, Craigslist – trying to find the great “fixer-upper”. We had closed on our lot on a Monday and saw this rehab property on Rehablist.com on Tuesday, made an offer on Wednesday, and closed on Friday.

We bought an assignment of contract from a “wholesaler”. They had found the deal, had done all the research, including repair costs etc. It was a good deal for us and them. We never even knew this kind of thing existed.

We then had to start the rehab process on the house. It needed some work. We did pretty much everything ourselves. We did hire a few guys to help when we started painting.

After 2 months of rehab, we have finally got our first set of tenants in place. We liked the property so much we decided to keep this one as a rental. Nothing like good old ‘sweat equity'. We just wanted to share this with others. I think it's a great way for someone to get started, finding a deal that is profitable can sometime be hard. So to pay for someone to do that for you is very helpful.

We have since joined our local real estate investors club, which has greatly expanded our “world”. The group has really given us fellowship with others that have the same goals for their lives. We have even started a little “wholesaling” ourselves.

Tanya Haley
Pittsboro, NC