Hey there, it’s Amelia with a much-anticipated update on the sale of my 11-unit apartment building! ✨ Over the next few weekly newsletters, I’m going to take you through my entire journey of acquiring, managing, and selling this property - and of course, the juicy details on just how much I made on this deal (I know that’s what you’re really here for! 😜).

So grab your favorite drink, get comfy, and let’s dive in! ☕️

To really set the stage, I need to give you a little background on how this deal came to life. In May of 2021, I was doom-scrolling on Zillow (fellow investors, you know the drill 🏡) when I stumbled upon an 11-unit apartment building listed for $524,000. My first thought? There’s no way I could afford this on my own. 😅

But then, my wheels started turning… What if I could turn a few of the units into furnished apartments and test out this Midterm Rental (MTR) strategy I’d been hearing so much about? 🤔💡 The property was only 2 miles from a large regional hospital, plus it was in an area that was undergoing a lot of redevelopment and new construction.

Sounds promising, right? But that was as far as my dreaming went. At that point, I was still in the mindset of a small-town Iowa girl and the biggest purchase I’d made was a $135,000 quadplex in my hometown. There was NO way I could afford this building on my own. 😳

Except, a month later… I still couldn’t stop thinking about it. I knew this could be a home run deal. I just had to figure out the financing. Luckily, I had been sharing my real estate journey on Instagram for about 8 months so I took to my stories and said, “Hey, I’m looking for a partner with $100K for this deal, and I’ll handle the boots on the ground!” 🥾

Pro Tip: Being a boss property manager/operator is such an underrated and invaluable skill that can translate so well for future partnerships. If you want to hone in your PM skills, check out our Savvy Self-Manager course (I’ll even give you code NEWSLETTER for $100 off 😉)

Long story short, I got a TON of interest, and ultimately, I ended up partnering with a couple from out of state who were looking for passive income. They already had properties but could make their money go WAY further in Iowa than in their high cost of living area.

They had been following my journey on Instagram for a few months and had a good understanding of my work ethic and plans for the property. That, paired with the fact that they already knew the investing drill, made the conversations surrounding the partnership very straightforward and rather simple.

We ended up going with a 60/40 split - they got 60% equity and monthly cash flow, and I got 40% (we’ll talk more about this in future “Lessons Learned” emails). At the time, I was thrilled with the prospect of owning FORTY PERCENT of a property that I had none of my own money in! We had an attorney draft an operating agreement for us to make it official.

We closed on the property in August of 2021 for $495,000. 🎉

The plan was to convert the two vacant units into furnished midterm rentals right off the bat to test the waters. Spoiler alert: they performed AMAZINGLY well! 🙌 For 3 years, we had incredibly high occupancy with very little vacancy between tenants. We continued to convert more units as they turned over and by the time we sold, 6 of the 11 units were furnished midterm rentals.

We paid for these turnovers (each unit cost about $2K to rehab and $3K to furnish) out of the property’s cash flow for the first 5 months. That meant we didn’t take any distributions during those first few months while we worked on stabilizing the property. 💸

Here’s a quick peek at the pro-forma numbers for an average month. Not too shabby, huh?! 😎

If you want to dive even deeper…my partner's cash out of pocket was $85K. So, using the pro-forma numbers above, their expected cash on cash return was 34.7% (COCROI = total cash invested divided by yearly cash flow). That’s killer!

Next week, I’m going to dive into how exactly we added value, some wild things that happened, and some BIG lessons I learned along the way. But I will leave you with one lesson today…

I wish I’d had more people with experience to bounce ideas off of prior to this partnership. I would have fought harder for a higher equity since now, as an experienced investor, I realize how easy money is to find and that the boots on the ground is the hard part.

If you’re looking for a community like this - I’ve got your solution. Join the waitlist for The WIIRE Community 💖. Our doors open again in March and these situations are the exact reason we’ve created this community.

Stay tuned!

Amelia, Grace, and The WIIRE Team 💗

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