One big step

I am an avid SCUBA diver.  One thing I can tell you is that nothing happens until you take that one big step over the side, and plunge into the water below.  I am a man of action.  There is nothing I love more than to take the plunge.  This post is, for me, the first of many plunges, first descents, adventures.

Today, the big step is actually, after 80 some BP Podcasts, a half dozen real estate and business books, and 6 months of slaving in a Real Estate office, baptizing myself in the BP community.  It has been mentioned many times on the show, that beginners often lie in silence, watching, listening and (hopefully) learning from the Jay Scott's, Michael Quarles', Ben Leybovich's and all the other experts shaping the industry.  I have always believed in careful, sometimes quiet observation, but the time for me has come to introduce myself to class.

When I was in the 6th grade, my mom gave me lunch money everyday.  Though I loved to eat, one day I thought, what would happen if I saved this money instead of buying a crappy slice of pepperoni pizza and a carton of milk?  Afterall, 3$ was 3$...and 3$ more than I had.  So after school, I rode my bike to the K-Mart (anybody remember those?) and bought a pack of Bubblicious bubble gum for 1$.  It had 5 pieces of gum in it.  I took it to school the next day, and while in class I quietly opened the pack to chew a piece.  Almost like a siren went off, several of the kids in my class asked to have a piece.  I refused, refused, and refused. Then it occurred to me, that I had a product that was in high demand.  So I returned with a price.  25 cents a piece and it's yours, I said.  I sold out on the spot.  That afternoon I took my earnings plus my stashed lunch money and reinvested.  I bought up as many value-packs of Bubblicious gum as I could, understanding naturally the value in economies of scale.  The next day, I sold out again.   I continued to grow my business for the rest of the school year, amassing wads of cash.  It was the first time I had a taste of business, and I was hooked.  It was also a point of introspection.  How many of those kids could have bought their own gum, even started their own candy shop?  Any one of them had as much access as I did.  The difference...Some people have that fire inside, and some people don't.

My name is Matt Huneycutt.  I began my Real Estate investing organically.  I was newly married, with a wonderful young son, living in a sweltering hot two bedroom apartment in San Diego, CA.  Bouncing back and forth from back to back deployments, I lived in five places in four years; all the while throwing my hard earned money into the pockets of someone who saw behind the curtain of Real Estate, as I would eventually come to do.  After the fifth move, and increased pay from my marriage kicked in, a light bulb went off above my head and I thought...Why give someone else $1000 a month, when I can own a home and pay myself that money over time.  Put my living expenses into my retirement instead.  Around this time, the market had bottomed out hard.  It was 2008 and foreclosures were at record highs.  One of the guys that I worked with was in the process of buying a house, and was happy to give me a play-by-play of his home buying experience.   Armed with enough information to be dangerous, and some great references, I started my investing as a first time home buyer.  In November 2008, I closed on a "paint and carpet" fixer; an REO, 4 bed, 2.5 bath 1646 sf home in a PUD.  All I can say about my research was, it was almost non existent.  I knew the area that I wanted to live in, after having lived every where else over the last several years and not wanting to return.  But ultimately it was my gut that told me it was the right place.  I do not recommend this investment strategy for anyone, ever!  But my gut could not have been more spot on.  We moved in to the house right away, and I sat out to put it back together.  The rest is history.