Buying a 12-Unit Multifamily as Your First Rental Property with Amanda Bolan

Buying a 12-Unit Multifamily as Your First Rental Property with Amanda Bolan - Feature Image

Amanda Bolan – Multifamily investor, wife, and mother to 3 small children. Being active previously on flips, underway on a small development, she and her husband have narrowed their focus to multifamily properties for long term wealth creation. At the beginning of 2020, they closed on a 12 unit apartment deal as their first rental property.,

In this episode, we talk about getting started flipping properties, how they ended up buying a larger property than they thought they could afford, the challenge of acquiring their first property during the beginning of a pandemic, and how they got past the fear of the unknowns of buying their first property.

Post-Interview Analysis 

  • Key Lessons Learned. Don’t be afraid to ask for things even if you think the answer will be no. The answer is always no if you never ask. If you’re uncomfortable asking for things, practice in low-stakes situations like in line at Starbucks. Ask for a 10% discount. The answer will likely be no, but you’ll condition yourself to understand that the world doesn’t end when someone says no. Also, don’t let the price of something stop you, within reason. Real estate is one of those situations where you can often find something that you want to buy and then figure out how to pay for it later.
  • How did they acquire their knowledge or what knowledge did they need to acquire? They learned a lot from listening to the BiggerPockets Podcast, but they also ended up hiring a mentor to accelerate their learning.
  • How much money did it take to get started? They had to come to the table with about $85,000 to buy a $1.1 million property, and only about $14,500 of that was for the down payment, the rest was for renovations and reserves.
  • How much time does it take now? The time commitment to managing the property is pretty minimal at this point because they have a property manager. Things are more intense when they are in the middle of an acquisition or searching for a property.
  • Could they do this strategy from anywhere in the world? They invest locally at this point, but given they have a property manager handling the day to day management of the property, this is probably a strategy they could do from almost anywhere.

Episode Highlights: 

  • Schedule a video chat with Neil Henderson at roadtofamilyfreedom.com/storage 
  • Getting started flipping properties
  • How they ended up buying a larger property than they thought they could afford
  • The challenge of acquiring their first property during the beginning of a pandemic
  • How they got past the fear of the unknowns of buying their first property
  • And much more…

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About the author, Neil

Neil Henderson is the co-host of The Road to Family Freedom, a self-storage investor, and avowed proponent of short-term rental house hacking. He founded The Road to Family Freedom to guide busy parents to financial freedom through passive real estate investing.