First one worked. The six weeks between tenant and refinance nearly killed it.

Not an operator by trade, I do service work around this business, but I wanted one of these for myself and it's done.

Small two bed, bought at 96k on a private loan from someone I've worked with for years. Rehab 27k, budget was 24k, the overage was a water heater and a panel I should have expected. Holding and closing about 6k. All in 129k. Appraised at 172k. Rent 1,425.

Refinanced at 75 percent, so 129k, which was almost exactly my basis. About 1,800 stayed in, which I'll take. Payment plus taxes and insurance leaves me roughly 260 a month before reserves, and I put the first four months of that straight into a repair account.

The part that nearly broke it: the lender wouldn't order the appraisal until the lease was signed and the first month's rent had cleared. I had a tenant applying two days after the work finished and it still took six weeks from lease to funding, because the appraisal took eleven days to schedule and then the underwriter came back twice for documents on the private loan. My private lender was patient. If he hadn't been, or if his note had matured in that window, this is a different post.

What I'd keep: the private loan with a maturity two months longer than I thought I needed. What I'd change: I'd have had every document on the private loan assembled before the refi application instead of hunting for them one request at a time.