I am a sahm of 2 little ones and would like to hear from other women who’ve had success investing in RE while staying home with kids. It seems that quite a few guys think that rei would be so easy for the sahm but they don’t realize how very restrictive it is especially if you have no family local to help out sometimes.
So how do you ladies do it? What RE investing strategies have worked the best for you? Any ‘wish I would have know about that earlier’ ideas or tips? :beer
My wife and I do rentals. She is a huge part of our business. She’s available during the day to meet with people to accept applications, run background checks, go talk to the HUD office, pay bills, pick up rent, etc. I tend to not like her to show properties by herself for security reasons, but she can make appointments with people for when I’m available. Her availability during the day has been great for our business.
I have many friends that are women investors. Don’t get me wrong, it is exciting and energizing for them and they are making good money but you have to realize that it is a 24/7 type job and you could be getting phone calls all day and night.
You will need to get a property manager if you do not want to be bothered or have a live person answering service.
A lot of potential customers feel more at ease with women.
Good luck.
lol, and all the replies are from men! must be the moms have their hands full with real estate investing and raising kids at the same time :shocked
sahm Stay- At-Home Mom (Took me a while to figure that one out),
Where do you live now? Are you in a rental or your own home?
My First Rule of Real Estate is: LOOK TO YOUR OWN ROOF FIRST. The Chinese symbol for home is a roof drawn over a pig. That distills it right down…home is shelter over the food. That roof can also help you buy your food someday if you do it right.
If you are renting, re-think that and buy if you can in your area. If you are in a single family home, re-think that and buy into 2 or more units. Let your tenants help pay for your roof. Don’t get sucked into that HGTV “gotta have granite counters” and all that crap. Think bottom line. Postpone your luxuries for security.
I was a single working Mom, sole support of a small child when I made my first real estate investment. I bought the lowest price 2-on-1 that I could find, a 2-bedroom old house with a studio unit in the rear of the property.
The studio unit was rented to Ramona, a young single college student. Ramona was happy to babysit and we deducted those hours off the monthly rent. My first grader came home to a happy young babysitter every day and was watched until I got home. It was very flexible and workable. My daughter still has “Ramona Stories”-- how Ramona lived on a ranch, how Ramona trained horses, etc. Ramona was an enrichment for my child and I was able to work. Plus Ramona’s rent helped a lot with the mortgage payment.
Another tip…check out “Mint.Com” for watching your finances. It will help you look at the big picture. Kids don’t mind living in a dump as long as their Mommy is there. Kids are way more flexible than spouses. Take care of yourself first. You are your greatest asset and you can not rely on anyone else for your financial security. You CAN be a RE investor and have small children.
Furnishedowner
That’s an awesome, inspiring story, Furnishedowner! Thank you for sharing. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been as a single working mom.
I hope to re-enter the workforce solely to save up more money to invest. We do own our home and looked everywhere within a reasonable commute for my husband’s job for a multifamily home - they just aren’t popular in my area and those that were available were too small (2/1). How I wish there were homes with basements or other source of rental income like is popular in the colder regions of the nation. We ended up buying a brand new home. Although it doesn’t meet the 2% rule we will still cash flow and the home won’t have any major repairs for a while and has a pretty good builder warranty if anything does go wrong. Also the rents are in an upward trend in my area and demand is strong. I forgot to mention we plan on moving again soon to begin collecting up as many properties as we can using owner-occupant financing rates.
I am also researching investing with my self-directly IRA and trying to figure out what % I want to use for buy & hold’s and hard money lending. Flipping within an IRA triggers major tax burdens and additional tax if you use borrowed money to make a profit. So I’ll probably leave that to our regular monies.
It all just seems kind of mind boggling trying to do all this with 2 little kids. I worry about appearing unprofessional during phone calls if they start to make a bunch of racket in the background :rolleyes or if, heaven-forbid, I have to bring along my youngest to a meeting (my 3 yr old has preschool 3 days a week so I would schedule during those times). Tips and tricks from the ladies please!!!
Thanks again!
cadw2005,
Okay, so you are in a good new home and already in ownership. Better yet, you have a partner and are not doing it alone.
I looked into the IRA thing some time back and decided against it. Leave your retirement monies alone. I thought it was just too cumbersome and restrictive in that all funding had to stay separate from other income. I dropped it, but you may find it works for you.
What are your assets right now? Your current job skills? Guess what, you are REALLY GOOD AT CHILD CARE! And you have a nice house in a neighborhood with other working families. Families who need childcare from a trusted, seasoned Mom. Like you. You can make some other working parents happy. You can become a licensed day-care Momma.
I know because another thing I did when daughter #1 was an infant is that I started caring for my neighbor’s 2 tots–ages 1 and 3. Then I added my sister’s 2–ages 2 and 5. I had my infant (in playpen so she wouldn’t get stepped on) two spoon-feeders, and two who had to have their food cut up for them. That was the thinnest I ever got in my life, hardly had time for a morsel of food, another plus.
This was all in a 1-bedroom duplex apartment. I didn’t have TV or video or any of that stuff. Didn’t have a car.
The tots had fun playing together and we made projects like glueing leaves from the garden on paper, tent houses with blankets on the card table, etc. My baby became very engaged and lively as she twisted around in the playpen and then her walker so she could watch those other happy children’s faces.
I got paid every week. The good thing was that those toddlers all got picked up in the evening and my little 3-person family was able to enjoy our evenings and weekends alone together. I was able to save all that tax-free money. It was just a year or two in my life, then I went back to school and my tot went to a child-care center.
Think about it. You can now have a 40-hr work week and just bank that found money. Your children will thrive and time will go incredibly quickly. You will be like one of those well-organized Moms of multiples on TV. Then when you only have your two at home it will be so easy. You will also be so organized and efficient that you can then tackle almost anything.
Another idea is that you could get your foster-parent license and take in infants and toddlers only. You do get paid for their upkeep and they are temporary, but all-day children.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
Furnishedowner
Childcare is the most difficult job I’ve had, lol. My two are a handful and adding more would probably drive me crazy :flush And actually I do look forward to working out of the home again. I have a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA. I was a supply officer for 5 years in the army so I could do something with that pretty easily but my passion is finance/accounting (money!!!). It’s why I’ve been self-educating myself since college on personal finance and investing. I would have started in real estate earlier but we were stationed in Germany for all 5 years (it was worth the great experiences in Europe though). Or if I can do well enough in building cash through real estate investing, I’ll do it full time and try to qualify as a ‘real estate professional’ for some sweet tax benefits. :beer
It’s amazing how a conversation then brings out these other skills, that’s why talking to someone other than yourself is so helpful.
Yes, childcare of toddlers and infants IS the most difficult job in the world. A job that you can both hate and love at the same time. Please enjoy every moment with your little ones because they do grow up with lightening speed. I wanted to bonsai mine when they hit two because they were so adorable.
You seem a natural to start a home business as a Senior or Financial Counselor. Set up a few office hours a week during naptime or evenings or Saturdays when Dad is on duty. Your clients can come to you, or maybe you do a few home visits. This industry is just now getting regulated and it sounds like you have most of the qualifications already.
Furnishedowner