What A Duplex Actually Made Me In Year One
Central Illinois
The real numbers, including the water heater that decided to end its life in February.
Everybody online wants to tell you about cash flow. Nobody wants to tell you about the water heater.
Here is the honest first year on this duplex: rents came in almost exactly as projected, vacancy was two weeks between tenants, and then the water heater went out on a Saturday in February and took $1,400 with it.
Net result was still positive, but the number was about 60 percent of what the spreadsheet said before I owned it.
That is not a reason to skip the deal. It is a reason to stop believing spreadsheets that have zero in the repairs row.
Want to see what I do next?
Probably food. Maybe a building. Possibly something stupid.
