Recommitment

So, I joined BiggerPockets around the 1st of the year in homes to get back into real estate.  I was a real estate agent for about 3 years but I eventually burned myself out trying to be an agent and working full time.  

But, this time I didn’t want to become an agent again. I did flirt with re-activating my license but Realtor dues in my area have jumped again and I wanted to see the other side.  I loved going to visit properties, visualizing potential and making a deal.

So, I upgraded to Pro in hopes that this will light a fire!  I’ve made use of my Kindle Unlimited account and read quite a few books on real estate investing.  In addition to reading every post I can here BiggerPockets. 

The question is, why real estate?  What are the goals?  I currently work for a large tech company.  I have awesome benefits, great people to work with, I get to work from home and I make decent money.  The reason is after much realization, I like being independent. 

Even though my job offers some degree of independence, its not total.  I want to be able to wake when I want to. I want to work for how ever long I want to. I want to sign my own paychecks. And I want to make sure my family is taken care of. 

Now the wants are all well and good but need to have plan.  I’ve narrowed it down to 3 different “styles” for homes I will purchase.  1) Fix and Flip.  2) Fix, Hold and then flip (hold for at least a year) 3) Fix and hold (Long term, cash flow.) 

The hard part is being able to get financing.  I don’t have a whole lot of cash to have “skin in the game.”  Enough to maybe cover points if I go with a hard money lender.  It seems somewhat easy to get hard money financing, the issue is being able to refinance later.  I guess I’m not sure if I would qualify to be able to re-finance.  Or if I attempted to flip it, would it sell before the loan is due. Maybe my anxiety getting in the way.

I have a decent network, just from previous workings as a RE agent.  I have other realtors to work with, Title Company, Mortgage lender and my father has been in the construction industry for...a long time. Even though it is commercial construction, he would be good to help estimate of how much repairs would cost until I run the numbers and see if the deal is worth it.

So now its learn, get the money, get the deal and make the money.  Simple enough right?