This was an excellent investment and my first with a joint venture partner. This was a 21 units boarding house (shared bathrooms). 6 units were in the front portion which was a ‘character’ house built in 1920. In 1942 a brick structure was built in the back with another 15 units. Rents were low and averaged only $230 / month. The building had a history of drugs and prostitution. We found a way to give every suite their own bathroom. Then we gave the old gal an upgrade. Once we were done the building rented for an average of $560 / month. The building then appraised at almost 5 times what we bought it for. We refinanced it, got all of our money back out PLUS $100,000 in cash AND we still owned the building. We kept it for a few more years after that and had positive cash flow the entire time. In the end we sold it and made another $200,000.
Before Hoarders was a TV show we ran into our fair share of properties that you would think only an atomic bomb could have fixed.
Thank goodness for the bad styles and colors of the 1970’s or renovation experts would be out of a business.
Sometimes, despite your best intentions, things don’t work out quite as well as you would like. I actually lost a bit of money on this one. This was one of the first major renos that I did. It involved blowing out some walls and adding space to the side and rear of the building to increase the size of the bedroom, garage and kitchen. We spent too much on some things and didn’t update some things I should have. Lessons learned.