How did you first get into the position to invest?
Member since 2018 · 19 posts · 5 votes
I’m a dad with a non-working wife and a son. Not much more to add.
I’m working as an SEO and another job, and I want to become an investor.
How did you get started with investing?
I worked 60 hours a week and lived at home til I was almost 25. Sacrificed luxury items, and every cent from tax returns and side jobs went into savings. Still to this day, I'm very caution on wasteful spending, I save a lot from my current job at a defense contractor because I want to go full time investing...feel free to ask anything through a PM if you'd like, I'm on my 2nd multi house hack, and have ventured into finding off market deals and flips as well.
@Albert Brown Well, you need capital and a deal. Work hard to get both as soon as you can. While you're doing that, research and master the knowledge needed for your niche.
@Albert Brown. I saved for 10 months. Bought my first deal. Did 6 deals in 2 years. Now this year I hope to do more
I worked 60 hours a week and lived at home til I was almost 25. Sacrificed luxury items, and every cent from tax returns and side jobs went into savings. Still to this day, I'm very caution on wasteful spending, I save a lot from my current job at a defense contractor because I want to go full time investing...feel free to ask anything through a PM if you'd like, I'm on my 2nd multi house hack, and have ventured into finding off market deals and flips as well.
@Albert Brown I would say
1. Make sure your four walls are taken care of. I didn't want to get started until I minimized the risk of having anything hinder paying the bills.
2. My next step was to get debt free (except for my house) we thought this was soo important that my wife and I now help other people do the same.
3. While accomplishing step 2 will help with this. Check on your credit, work to get the score up so you can get better interest rates.
4. In this process, watch BP podcast and others, read books (plenty listed on this site) the first book I would suggest is "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson it helps put other books into actionable steps. Stay in the forums, go to meet-ups.
5. Work on adding people who are making positive moves to your circle of influence (the 5 people you spend the most time around) strangely this has worked for me even if its watching them on Youtube! The energy around these people is contagious!
6. Looks at houses online and also go see house, we looked for 8 months before we bought our first house, the agent we stuck with was patient and awesome, analyze them like you would if you were planning to buy them (start doing this at step 1, It can't hurt) the more you pour through the more you start getting an eye for things (Market, neighborhoods etc) BP has an awesome deal analyzer page, find your market, learn it, know it, love it.
7. By this time you should be more able to understand some of the strategies that are discussed on BP. (It helped us ex BRRRR)
8. Get to it!
This is a short breakdown of the things my wife and I have done, and while talking to you it's sort of a refresher for me!
I also am a introvert so I forced myself to volunteer at work to teach training classes and signee up for other projects where I had to talk in front of 60+ people, that helped me tremendously, considering that I would've never had a single post on this site if I hadn't done that.
Good luck out there! Hope this helps.
I agree with @Kenny C. get your life in order first. This is what I did:
1. Education (junior college/ university) paid my own way working at the grocery store
2. Career that paid a good salary
3. Paid all my bills on time 820 credit score
4. Lived within my means I still live in the house that I bought in 1994/ drive 1996 Toyota 4runner/
5. Save all the money you can and use that to invest
6. Hustle and work at what I wanted to accomplish (don't be lazy and sit at a computer waiting for someone to take you by the hand and give you all of their tricks of the trade) go out and hustle,,most working people like to see that in a young and upcoming person at least I do.
7. My wife never asked for a Luxury Car or designer clothes,,she was 100% on board with our life style,,Both of us together have made solid life together and like your wife, my wife was a stay at home mom for 10 years before she started working.
I never had to skimp on anything in my life: I am at the moment spending tons of money with no return on sending my kids to University, but that was step #1 that I believe in so much "Education".
#6 Hustle is the most important tip in all of this. If you are lazy and are not a hard worker then accomplishing your dreams regardless of what it is will be very difficult.
@Damaso Bautista #7 is gold.. We tell every couple who is working on getting debt free or anything pertaining to life improvements.."If you both aren't on the same page it's like having your wheels stuck in the mud. If one is trying to save and the others is still spending, jt can create resentment. Get buy- in from your significant other 1st.
Great tip Damaso!
I have tried to take a holistic approach to all of this. Started in house with simple things doing the dishes every night, cutting excess spending and dialing in my personal finances. This helps build capital. In the meantime listen to the podcasts and read the books suggested. Folks often suggest buying a deal as soon as possible, but I say read 40 books in the next 6 months then decide how to proceed. All of the answers are there, you just have to gather them and put them into action. Start with @Scott Trenchs book "Set For Life".
1) Got a STEM college degree, and a good 9-5 job directly afterwards
2) Saved aggressively while keeping expenses low and paying minimums on loans (only had student debt)
3) Purchased a house with value add potential
4) House hacked and rehabbed the property while living there for 2 years
5) Pulled HELOC on the equity
6) Found equity and money partners for a flipping business
7) Networked for deals and support
Work you real quarter panel off... save, save, save, live well below your means, buy a apartment building to live in and rent out the other units for positive total cashflow, start a excellent cash-flow business, invest in multi-units. Keep buying well, manage well, grow patiently, WATCH THE DEBT.. in time yoa can be full time investor living comfortabley off the rents...if you stick to the plan and be patient..
Took me about 15 years, debt free..
@Albert Brown
I started at my sales job with a salary of 28,000 and a 4% commission rate. I then proceeded to work as hard as humanly possible for the next 5 years.
7 years later I am accredited and have participated in over 8 MF and commercial investments as both LP and GP.
Anything is possible when you combine vision with hard work!
Good Luck
@Albert Brown there a variety of ways to start/strategies. Based on your description, a few places to start would be to get a low down payment mortgage/home that you can perhaps fix up/add value/appreciate and then move into the next place in a year or two. Alternatively, look into buying properties in not so great areas that are more in your price range.
All of the above is great advise. My husband first started renting out our first home when we moved away for college. It just happened, then when we moved back, we bought a second home. We still didn't have much money, so we bought the best deal we found on the market. Then we moved into our current home and rented it out as well. Luckily, we bought the best deals we could find, so they both are pretty good cash flowing deals. Then, we found Bigger Pockets and took off from there, but those first two have helped us accomplish what we have today. In your situation, you could move and use your property as your first rental or consider a house hack.
@Albert Brown
I bought a foreclosure, 20% down. Lived in it and fixed it up over 5 years. Sold it, walked out of closing with tax free profit of $85k. That was enough to put down on a new primary residence and paid cash for and rehabbed another foreclosure to use as a 1st rental.
Rental income is $1200/month, expenses are $300 month. Winner winner.
Good luck to you, work hard and save your $!
Educate yourself, save money, and start taking action finding a deal.
Speaking of foreclosures, check out HudHomeStore.com, the official website for HUD foreclosures.
The thing I like about HUD foreclosures is, they're safe. Bank foreclosures sometimes leave the eviction process to the highest bidder, and personally, I seriously do not want to have a conversation with the person who just lost their home. HUD foreclosures have already done that nasty business for you. Not to mention, this sometimes precludes your getting a good look at the place before deciding to bid. Get with an authorized agent, and you can inspect the HUD foreclosure to your heart's content.
The thing I DIS-like about HUD foreclosures is, there appears to be tons of competition. When my wife and I were trying to buy one, some 30 years ago, it seemed every bid we made was out-bid, usually for more than asking. We did a quick check just last year, and that seems to still be true.
But otherwise, it's a great place get a cheap house, and if you plan on moving in, you can get some killer rates! The FHA will subsidize your loan, you can get in for 3% down, and you can take out an additional 203K loan to rehab the place. Although, sometimes you might luck out and find a place that doesn't really need much work.
So if you move in, you can do the "BRRRR" or "House Hack" strategies. If you have the 20 or 25% down and just buy it strictly as an investment, you can fix it up and either flip it or rent it out. (Not sure, but I think you'd still qualify for the 203K rehab loan.) Either way, it's a good start for when you're "financially embarrassed"!
I was lucky and got to work with my dad (as an employee) who was a real estate investor. He started by saving some money and getting a private loan from his dad. But I've seen many others start with either private loans from friends/family/colleagues/etc. or just save up enough for a purchase. Saving money and keeping or getting good credit are critical either way.
Wow, what great advice here!
I would like to add that I have moved away from working for clients and moved toward working WITH them. That is, I have begun doing partnership-type deals with my SEO services.
(I did freelance work for a couple years, and I consistently overworked because - well - a lot of small businesses don't trust SEO people because there's a lot of snake oil in my industry. Indian SEO amateurs target new businesses and bamboozle them into spending $5,000 of funds they didn't have. Also, small business people got annoying because they created content that - say - talked about real estate but mentioned the landscape and poetic renderings of their neighborhoods. In short, they wanted me to "SEO" crap they wrote in 5 minutes and expect me to rank them #1.)
I am trying my best to create income channels, but it's SEO - ya know; it's slow moving, It's SEO, afterall. I will have money eventually. But how can I, as Gary Keller advises, work on my network? (as an SEO)
Um, to those who tell me to "put my life together," don't insult me. I have a Masters degree in English Composition and Rhetoric, and I am a veteran that has went overseas twice. Please.
@Albert Brown
First off determine what type of investing goal you have. So many jump in because they want to be a real estate investor with out setting goals for what they are really trying to achieve.
Example: my partner and I plan on acquiring 5 units per year at $150 MCF/unit for the next 20 years.
From there, you’ll know what you’ll need to do first. I suggest picking a strategy type. Our strategy is long distance investing. We read through David Greene’s book on the topic. From there we set up a step by step strategy of things we needed to accomplish.
Honestly, I wouldn’t save up capital. I would look for a personal loan (I got 30k for 500/month). If you’re buying and adding value, you’ll be able to acquire 1-2 properties in the 50-60 k range using Rehab loans. Then looks to refinance out in 6 months. You’ll have some small risk with the loan but, my thinking on this is laid out below.
Most people say “I need to save up capital”. Well instead of saving 500 a month and waiting a couple years for a down payment, spend the 500 a month and get $30k to start making moves right away.
@Albert Brown I think as others have said it starts at home first. As somebody who doesn’t have family in real estate, I came up a plan of first making sure my bills were taken care of and that I wiped out any consumer debt I had. Took on a few extra freelance jobs, cut my budget as much as possible, and just started saving.
I figured if I was in a better financial position at home, then I can invest confidently knowing that if something went wrong, I wouldn’t have to worry about paying my own bills as well.
I’d check out JL Collins blog/book and look into Dave Ramsey. I’m not suggesting following their advice to a T, but the concepts may be useful.
@Albert Brown I would say
1. Make sure your four walls are taken care of. I didn't want to get started until I minimized the risk of having anything hinder paying the bills.
2. My next step was to get debt free (except for my house) we thought this was soo important that my wife and I now help other people do the same.
3. While accomplishing step 2 will help with this. Check on your credit, work to get the score up so you can get better interest rates.
4. In this process, watch BP podcast and others, read books (plenty listed on this site) the first book I would suggest is "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson it helps put other books into actionable steps. Stay in the forums, go to meet-ups.
5. Work on adding people who are making positive moves to your circle of influence (the 5 people you spend the most time around) strangely this has worked for me even if its watching them on Youtube! The energy around these people is contagious!
6. Looks at houses online and also go see house, we looked for 8 months before we bought our first house, the agent we stuck with was patient and awesome, analyze them like you would if you were planning to buy them (start doing this at step 1, It can't hurt) the more you pour through the more you start getting an eye for things (Market, neighborhoods etc) BP has an awesome deal analyzer page, find your market, learn it, know it, love it.
7. By this time you should be more able to understand some of the strategies that are discussed on BP. (It helped us ex BRRRR)
8. Get to it!
This is a short breakdown of the things my wife and I have done, and while talking to you it's sort of a refresher for me!
I also am a introvert so I forced myself to volunteer at work to teach training classes and signee up for other projects where I had to talk in front of 60+ people, that helped me tremendously, considering that I would've never had a single post on this site if I hadn't done that.
Good luck out there! Hope this helps.
Stepping outside of your comfort zone helps you grow tremendously. Nice work!
I am a contractor , bought first house , found a better house bought it and kept the first . Had kids needed better schools , ended up buying a customers house , kept my old house . Now have 3 . Went on an estimate , they wanted to fix up house to sell it (duplex in real bad shape) . The guy said nobody will buy it like it is . I made him an offer on the spot settled in 7 days , done and rented in 6 months . Neighbor whos parents dies asked me If I wanted to buy their place , 4 acres and house next to my 4 acres . Yup . Subdividing and will build 4 more houses when I feel like it . Bought last one while working for a customer who wanted me to clean out his mother in laws house ( it was wearing him out ) . I asked him how much , shook hands , settled in 10 days .
How did I get in the position to do this ? Work and good financial skills . As a contractor I make an above average income . But I live below my means ( most of the time ) . When the deals pop up you need to go in all cash , deal with financing later . People dont want to wait