Last week we purchased a BYU Womens Condo Rental! It was an idea that we talked about last month in Belize. It felt like the perfect investment  for us. Many of you know we paid off our house in June 2009 and six months later purchased a fixer upper Cabin for $65,000 in Midway, Ut—which we paid off in March of 2012. This is our third property, which I have plans to pay off in 3-5 years. I know! I’m kind of CRAZY! I am 39 years old–my husband is a fireman and  I sew slipcovers for a living and we have 3 boys. We live within our means and have always lived off my husbands income and have used my income to pay off debt, save for a house, invest for retirement etc. That was the only way we felt we could get ahead. Basically we are a two income household living off one income.

We’d been interested in the past on picking up a rental and had actually been under contract twice–but my fear and timing got the better of me and we backed out of both. I’ve had the last 9 months to save up since we became debt free again, so this time I wasn’t scared. It’s a better time for us, our kids are older (10,12,14 yrs old now) and I was feeling ready for my next goal/project. I wanted our money to be working for us instead of sitting in a savings account. I know most rentals are break even or maybe cash flow a few hundred dollars a month–so going into this, my plan is to cash flow once it’s paid off. In the mean time, I’ll  apply all rents and my income to this property until it’s paid for. Once it’s paid for we will cash flow about $750-$800/month after expenses (HOA, Management, property taxes, insurance). I know it’s a different way of looking at it, but I don’t want to pay $60,000 in interest over a 30 year loan, and I don’t want to wait 30 years to get a decent cash flow. I’d rather dump everything I’ve got into it now and pay $5,000 in interest over a 3-4 year period–that sounds more like an investment to me! I like to look at it like a nest egg–I am dumping $ into this property which will start giving back in 3-4 years, but I’ll still own the nest egg. It’s guaranteed returns.

Here are the specifics–we did a cash out refi on our primary residence to purchase the condo. This entailed us to get a better rate and no PMI (since we were only borrowing 60% of our appraised value). We closed with 3.25% rate on a 10 year loan (cheaper closing costs on a 10 yr instead of 15 yr by $400—I can buy a lot of furnishings for $400!) Since I have plans to pay it off fast I went for it against my loan officers advice. We took a slightly higher rate to get rebate on closing costs. We received $2400 off our closing costs. We paid $100 in closing costs!

We closed last Thursday on the condo. Friday we furnished it, Saturday I showed it to renters. Monday and Tuesday we cleaned and did small handy man projects–replaced faucet, smoke detectors, patched holes, replaced screens, etc. Then we had renters move in on Wednesday! HOLY SMOKES!! 6 days and we are up and running! I’m still on a high!

We are going to let a management company manage it for us. They charge $75/month to collect rent, fill vacancies, advertise, deal with small maintenance issues. I’m assuming this will be fully worth it!

It’s a 3 bedroom condo and rents to 3 single girls. All private  rooms. Here are some pics of the decorating I got to do! All on a budget of course!

Here is what the 2nd and 3rd bedroom look like! Picked up dark grey curtains, dressers, and office chairs from IKEA. White bedding with pop of color on the pillow.
This is the master with a full size bed. I got the antique headboard/ footboard for $55 off a local FB yardsale page. I got the desk from the thrift store for $17 (they had 5 identical desks!–I snatched up 3 of them). I purchased the turquoise corded light for $5 from the thrift store and attached it to an old plant stand I stole from my sisters dumpster pile. Topped it off with fresh white bedding, pillows, and foot warmer!

Family room has vaulted ceilings. Camille helped me hang curtains, I slipcovered a $30 Ethan Allen couch I got off local FB yardsale page and decided to bring my bronze antique chair into the mix. The coffee table was given to me last summer from a neighbor. Picked up lamp for $8 at thrift store, and mirror for $3! I made the pillows from a remnant at the fabric store.

It’s a new adventure, we will see how it goes!