3.5 years ago, I purchased my first investment property. I was terrified! I mean, like can’t eat, can’t sleep, worried my family was going to end up on the streets kind of terrified! But I am so glad I made that leap! It took me 8 years in the US Army to save and grow my net worth to $120,000. In 3.5 years as a real estate investor, I 10x’d that number and am proud as hell to say that we are officially millionaires!

This blog post walks you through each of the properties we purchased to increase our net worth. We’ve also invested in a few syndications and have grown our cash reserves.

This is the first property that I bought: a new Construction Single-family home. I put a tenant into it the day of closing and that same tenant is still in there today. They pay $1,840 a month. I purchased it for $225,000 and recently refinanced it from a conventional loan into a private money loan. We put it into a trust and the value is now $305,000. We owe $222,000 on it, leaving us with $83,000 in equity and it cashflows $366 a month.

This is the second buy-and-hold property that we bought. I self-directed my IRA and purchased it outright with the funds in my IRA. I purchased it for $65,000. It’s now worth over $75,000. I have no mortgage on it so my equity is $75,000. Each side rents for $650 so total income is $1,300 as it’s a duplex. I cashflow $1,050 a month after I pay my property manager and all expenses. 

We purchased this 10-unit using a commercial loan for $518,000. It appraised for $535,000. It was mostly rented and we immediately replaced the roofs and then slowly started renovating the interiors as people moved out.  We refinanced it 18 months later and the value was $675,000- it’s worth over $700,000 now. We owe $489,000 on it so our equity is about $211,000. It also rents every month for about $8,390. Tenants pay somewhere between $795 and $895 a month. After all our expenses and our mortgage payment, we cashflow just about $3,000 on this 10-unit.

We purchased this single family home for $295,000. It was new construction and we used our VA loan so we had $0 out of pocket. The builder actually paid all of our closing costs so we were officially $0 at closing.  We had zero equity when we made the offer, however, it appraised for $317,000 so we had $22,000 in equity the day we closed. We refinanced it and it’s now worth $430,000 so we have $107,500 in equity and we also were able to pull out $40,000 cash to purchase another. Simply by purchasing this property, we increased our net worth by almost $150,000. It’s also rented for $2,175 a month and our mortgage payment is $1,500, so it cashflows $523 a month. 

We bought this beach condo for $360,000. It’s now worth about $442,000. Since we owe $324,00,0 we have about $118,000 in equity. It’s a short-term rental, and brings in about $4,500 a month in revenue on average. After we pay our mortgage and all expenses, we’re left with $900 in cash flow and we pretty much get to go to the beach anytime we want!

We purchased this house in a hot area and even though it doesn’t cash flow because we live in it, we have $45,000 in equity already and we’re anticipating another 12% appreciation in the next year.

We bought this triplex after refinancing another property. We paid $272,000 for it and it appraised for $280,000. We currently owe $218,000 on it. We have about $62,000 in equity. It rents for $2,300 a month and we cashflow $711 after we pay all our expenses.

We bought this cabin in the Smoky Mountains for $405,000. We currently owe $364,000 on it. We have over $40,000 in equity. It brings in on average about $4,000 a month by the time we pay our property manager and all expenses including our mortgage. We cashflow about $300 and we get to go there anytime we want. 

Here is a roll-up of our equity and net worth!

This was my journey to $1 Million but I am just getting started! Follow me for education and direction to help you achieve financial freedom through real estate investing.

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And if you want to learn how I did it, simply enroll in Erin’s Investor Course!