I'm doing it!

General Real Estate Investing
1

I’ve been on this site for almost 10 years now, and you all may not know me, but I know you lol. I’ve especially followed the admins/big posters like Gold River, Bluemoon, Javipa, etc.

My husband and I have big goals for the next 4 years. We’re calling it our “2020 vision”. Our goal is to buy and hold 2 rental properties a year (aiming high for 20% CCR/ $500 CF), and do one reno/flip (to restore our cash savings).

We want $5000/mo in passive income by 2020. I don’t want my husband doesn’t have to work himself into the ground and miss out on our kids. And I don’t want to have to work full time and stick them in daycare and then we both miss out on them. I just turned 30 and we have a 4 month old little girl named Juliet. I’ve gotten into the swing of being a mom, so I’m back at work as an investor and looking into getting my real estate license here (we just moved to NW Houston).

Nothing is as motivating as wanting to provide an awesome future for this little angel!

Aaaaand we’re doing it!!!

We closed on one house in June, and have another under contract right now. We’ve contacted a hard money lender as well and are actively looking for a rehab project.

My husband is completely on the same page as me and we are going to do everything we can to achieve our dreams. Even if that means I can’t get my nails done or buy new clothes for the next 5 years, I don’t care, I want financial freedom for our family.

:beer

2

dreamchasing your goals are definitely possible. I am in NW Houston also (Cypress) and it is possible to get $500 or so a month from rentals in Houston with just a normal deal. So 10 houses should be enough to get you there. I have a philosophy that the enterprise should fund the enterprise. So make sure your business makes enough money to pay the mortgages and all the expenses. With that in mind once you have 3 houses if one goes empty the revenue from the other 2 will pay for the empty one and then you should never have to pay for any of the expense from your own pocket again. Keep your goals in front of you and your finance vendor in the loop with where you are headed and I have high hopes that you will make it.

3

$5,000/mo is achievable.
However, from only eight rentals?
Within four years?

That’s not been my experience.

Issue: Buying for cash-flow is not the same as buying for appreciation.

Of course, I don’t know your region, but I do know the average math that goes into assessing immediate cash-flow.

You will have more overhead expenses on your houses than you are anticipating.

For example, you can rely on a ten-year average management, maintenance, and replacement cost of 50% of your gross scheduled income, regardless of the income received.

This % can be less, if you’re delaying repairs and/or maintenance; and/or donating your time and money to management.

Frankly, most investors fail to bake in the necessary room for replacements and repairs, much less professional management into their negotiations. Worse, they assume that all the money left over after taxes, insurance, and the mortgage is “pre-tax, spendable cash flow.”

Issue: Set the income goal, and let the rest follow.

Focusing on the number of houses to invest in is an imprecise, non-starter for setting an income goal. Every property performs differently, for different reasons, and for different periods of times. Never mind that amateurs will settle for terrible deals …or never settle for less than a home-run. Either extreme undermines the investor’s goals.

Issue: Small apartment complexes produce faster cash-flow and/or appreciation than houses.

You will find that just about any 10-unit apartment complex will push off more cash, more quickly, and produce more forced appreciation than any ten single-family houses will.

That’s my 2cts.

Keep the $5k income goal in sight, and find all ways to make ‘that’ happen, and you’ll be good.

4

Yes sirs! I believe we will be adjusting our goals, at least yearly, as we learn. We’re just getting started and there’s going to be a lot of unknown variables…it makes us feel better to have a goal written down and a direction to adjust our sails to.

With the small change we have to invest, apartments aren’t on the horizon yet, but I’m confident we will be rolling things up and into larger multi families as we are able to. I’m drawn to commercial real estate, specifically, and we’ve looked for multi families but nothing in our price range yet.

Now that I’m physically here in Houston, I can put some legwork into getting to know people and seeking out off market deals.

And for the crybaby newbies out there reading this, here’s my sob story- I graduated college in 2009. Yes sir TWO THOUSAND AND NINE. So let me hear more about recession, no jobs, wah wah wah.

With scholarships, student loans, and a full time property management position managing 180 houses, mostly college rentals, I went to Eastern New Mexico University, yep, not even UNM, but Eastern NM. A nice little college I could afford.

I was released into the job market during the worst of it. I couldn’t find a job after getting my degree in business so I sold cars. Well, trucks mostly, Dodge Cummins to be specific, to local farmers in a small town.

Then after moving to a larger town, and applying for EVERY job for MONTHS, I waitressed my way through real estate school, and at the peak had three, that’s right, three jobs. I managed properties and sold real estate during the day, waitressed at night.

You kind of have to swallow your pride a little bit when you’re 23 and have a shiny new degree, and have been told your whole life “get a degree, and you can get a great job making $50k a year, no problem!” HA yeah right.

So I waitressed, and I did the best job I could, and it wasn’t long before I was one of the best waitresses there at a nice winery, and got the best shifts.

I remember my feet positively killing me by midnight or later, and after vacuuming 5000 sf of restaurant and rolling silverware, I could finally go home and count my tips. I used all the tips I made during December, the peak waitressing month, to buy the macbook pro that I’m typing on right now. $1200, 6 years ago. When that’s ALL your money, that’s a lot of money. But I needed a computer so I could try to better my position in life by learning about and selling real estate, so I worked my ass off to buy one.

Every time I get back onto REI club, there’s always a millennial out there crying because life isn’t easy. I’m a millennial and I’m sick of y’all making us look bad. Some of us are good hard workers. I’m sorry you feel so entitled, but even IF life were easy and everything was SPOON FED to you, you’d still be crying. Because, until you experience some hardships and failures, you just don’t have a thick skin and strong backbone yet. Don’t worry, you will. Life has a way of teaching you in a way that no one and no school can.

Nothing feels so good as hard work paying off.

ESPECIALLY after hitting rock bottom or recovering from failing.

So quit your online anon crying, make a plan, roll up your sleeves and get to work.

:beer

5

BlueMoon, I’m in Copperfield, just south of Cypress. I’m pretty pleased with what I see so far in this market.

We are a little nervous stepping into real estate investing with just my husbands income…until we have a few to offset vacancies, we may struggle a little, but I think we can make it! Even though I’ve got a tiny baby right now, there’s still a few things I can do.

I picked up real estate photography this year and am working on honing that craft- something I think I will use forever (and I love it).

I also have an estate sale company. All of my skills tie into real estate so with a plan of action, we sure are hopeful.

I’m scared a bad deal will sour my husband on re investing, so I’m doing my best to make sure that doesn’t happen. The one we have under contract right now is a nice, clean, easy move in ready rental, right near all the copperfield shopping.

6

Javipa, your 2 cents is probably worth a lot more than that to me! I have a little property management experience, and my husband is practically excited about being a handyman, so while we are small we plan to manage our own properties.

I know every deal will be different, some worse than others, some better. We’d love to knock it out of the park, but for now we are just aiming for easy and safe, for the first few.

I’m the one with the real estate experience, my husband is an engineer, so it’s helpful for the goals and numbers (2 a year, $500 CF ea) to be nice and dry. We will have to massage our goals and reassess every 6 months I believe.

In terms of appreciation vs cashflow, right now we are doing a buy right and hold approach. Nice area, nice rental, hopes for appreciation and the tenant covering the mortgage and a little extra to put into a maintenance and upkeep fund.

Please keep your two cents coming! I’ll take every penny I can get!

7

Keep at it…It works…Paste this on your mirror

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge.

GOOD LUCK

8

I always appreciate those who will determine to, ‘just do it,’ despite the cost. Quitting, and making excuses is too much of a sacrifice for a winner.

Otherwise, winning, by nearly any definition, is never easy, but is its own reward in the end.

Those who are willing to commit to the cause, breathe extremely rare air beyond the finish line.

9

Townhouse appraisal came in low this morning. Under contract at $129, appraised at $123.

Seller already said he’s not budging, and frankly, we don’t have the cash to bring to the table. We have $1500 in this deal with appraisal/inspection/survey. And a good $30k for the 15% down and closing costs. That wipes us out.

We can probably convince the seller to meet in the middle. But we’re still buying it at what would be considered above market value.

Probably not a wise investment move.

It doesn’t cashflow as much as we thought- HOA fees are killing us.

Options:

Buy it and rent it out- long term buy and hold. Its in a good area, it’ll make a fine rental and probably appreciate just fine.
Buy it and sell it- carry the note. Find someone with $10 or $20k down, sell it to them, and sshh don’t tell our bank.
Some other creative shenanigans that we or y’all can come up with.
Don’t buy it. Keep our money and find the next (and better) deal.

Going to sleep on it and hopefully get some advice on here from you good people…

10

A lot of newbies get the itch to buy, and after a short bit, they chomp on something they fall in love with, and should NOT buy whatsoever.

This would be one of those deals.

You make money when you buy. Anything else makes real estate investing a gamble.

This is worse than a gamble. Overpaying is like paying the card dealer a few bucks on the side to make sure you lose the hand. Why?

This property is worth at most $100k to an investor, and not a penny more. Of course, houses that can be bought for that price probably need work, and the cost of that work needs to come off the $100k. Then you’ve got an investment quality deal. A deal you can unload if necessary, and not lose your shirt. Otherwise, you’ve increased the cash-flow potential at the get-go (depending on your financing) …but captured a $23k gross profit anyway.

So, buying at $129k is starting out upside down, and worse if you need to cash out for any reason.

Keep looking.

P.S. High HOA fees negatively impact resale value. And so are litigious HOA’s.

11

Yep, you’re right. We were so excited to hit our goals this year. We’ve looked at a lot of deals and been under contract on a few, and this was our favorite…

But the numbers just kept getting worse and worse. We’re out of this one.

12

Not knowing any better, I would give the owner my best and last offer, with an end-of-year expiration.

You’ve already built some kind of familiarity with the seller that nobody else has, and so you keep the door open by saying something along this line…

YOU: Mr. Seller, obviously I can’t pay more than the appraised value. I’m an investor, and I have to make money on my purchases. I know you want more, and are firm on your price right now. However, things can change and I would like to make you a back-up offer just in case you would rather have cash now, rather than full price later.

Would you let me make a back-up offer, even if it’s less than your asking price?

SELLER: How much lower?

YOU: I am prepared to pay you $100,000, which is all the money I have available for this house. All the rest of the terms would be the same as the earlier offer. Can I leave you with my back-up offer?

SELLER: Sure, but don’t expect me to ever say ‘yes’. I’m not desperate.

YOU: That’s great. Here’s a copy of my offer, along with my contact information. I promise to be ready, willing, and able to do what I promise. Have a great day.

Two months later: The Seller’s wife mysteriously disappears. He falls and breaks his hip, ruptures his spleen, and splits his liver. His medical bills climb to $180,000. He needs money yesterday. Someone vandalizes the house. All of the sudden the house is both a source of cash, and a burden to hold onto. He doesn’t want to borrow against it, and continue being a landlord. He’s now mentally exhausted.

SELLER: Hi, are you still willing to buy my house for $100,000?

YOU: I don’t know. It’s been two months. Things have changed. I can give you $90,000.
—or—
YOU: Yes, we can schedule a closing in just a few days. How’s two weeks from today sound?

SELLER: That sounds great. BTW, there’s a fresh concrete slab in the backyard where I buried my wife’s body. I hope that doesn’t ruin our deal. It’s unmarked so nobody will know the difference.

YOU: Uh…

Gotta keep the doors propped open, and be ready for anything.

13

Great advice and I’ll do just that! Backed out of the deal today. It frees us up for a better deal. Nice fat lesson learned with this one.

14

Good choice Dream Chaser, a bad deal is always worse than no deal at all.

15

Dreamchasing, did you complete a wholesale transaction yet?

Did I read right that you have experience as a Realtor? If yes, why not just continue doing that instead of wholesaling?

16

Welcome back all ears! I missed you on here! I was a realtor for 5 years and a big part of why I did that was to learn about real estate and how to value a property. It’s not cheap being a realtor, if you break down all the yearly and monthly dues, it costs about $500 a month just to be licensed, and that doesn’t include advertising, business cards etc.

I made a lot of money as a realtor, but it was just a stepping stone.

Investing is all I’ve ever wanted to do.

It was valuable on the job education but I’m past it now. Wholesaling isn’t just to wholesale, it’s to put myself out there to get deals for me and my husband, and wholesale what we don’t want to keep.

17

Dreamchasing, do you know any local real estate people in real life that are verified successful wholesalers?

You sound well positioned, and married too. Without a partner and family, business owners experience time-poverty.

Recently I read that over 90% of millionaires are married. And most successful businessmen are married.

18

Hi,

I am single (Unmarried) however have been previously married. I have not wholesaled in years with purposeful intent to make it a full time living.

I have a girlfriend who understands she may not see me for days or weeks depending on the demands of my schedule, travel, etc.

I like what I do so I pretty much live, eat, sleep my business. I average about 100 hour work weeks inclusive of business lunches or dinners. I make time when I need to for personal demands and to take time with my kids!

                GR
19

You sound busy GR!

All ears, yes I know hugely successful wholesalers and people with successful real estate investing careers. I just got the opportunity to work for some and will be working and learning while I do some investing on my own.

20

good to know about your resolution and aim for the future.

Child real life is with mom and dad not in daycare , and your planning is appreciable.

Good luck and keep it up :beer