We closed on our first apartment building.

There were times when I wasn’t sure that we were ever going to make it to the closing table. Even the last few days were a little hairy at times. But we did, as a matter of fact, close the transaction. We are now officially Real Estate Investors!!!!!!!

There are a lot of steps to the whole transaction that I have not yet written about, but I plan to go over the whole thing in future entries. For now I am looking ahead to what we are going to do next. First we need to do is make sure that all of the terms are clear between the management company and us. They were employed by the seller, and we have decided to keep them on, and we want the transition to be smooth. Then we are going to go over the estimates that we have already received for replacing the roof and the siding, and arrange to actually have the work done this summer. I have no idea how long the work will actually take to get done, or how soon anyone can start the work, but we are hoping that the actual cost remains within 20% of the estimates. We were fortunate that the appraised value came in higher than the amount that we paid. So, we have $25,000 instant equity, plus the amount of cash that we put down. Once the work on the roof and siding is done, (and maybe a few other minor repairs) we are going to try to get secondary financing on the property and pull some of our money out for the next investment. I have no idea how much of a difference the work that we are doing will make on the appraised value of the property. The hope is that the value will increase more than the amount that the repairs cost.

Until then, I am waiting for the feeling of being a new real estate investor set in. It still does not quite feel real yet. Maybe it will feel more real when we lose on our second investment.