Just starting out: build up capital or offer available time in a partnership?

[Abigail Berkley]

Hi all, my name is Abby, I am a young entrepreneur in the beginning stages of my investment journey. As I continue to gain knowledge through the BP forums, podcasts, books, and various seasoned investors, my goal is to create a healthy long term buy & hold portfolio through the BRRRR strategy. I also have a background in hospitality and enjoy design and exceptional experiences, so I may be interested in STR's as well.

By day I am a self employed Tattoo Artist and Bookkeeper, however I am now in a unique position. I just recently moved further North in California, about an hour and a half outside of Tahoe. I have been Bookkeeping from home, but my hours are fairly minimal. I am now wrestling between two options and I'd love some advice on which might be better for my goals.

Option 1: Restart my tattoo journey in my new area, continue to build capital and become more lendable. Once I have more capital built up and consecutive work history, purchase a STR property to generate solid cash flow, then use the profits from the STR to build up more capital and be able to begin BRRRR'ing properties. Or, go straight to buying my first BRRRR property after another year or two of tattoo income.

Option 2: Do not restart tattooing, and instead leverage my available time to help deal find, manage rehabs, etc. and partner with someone who is lendable right now. With this option, I wouldn't be able to bring any capital to a deal, and fear that it would take me longer to be able to refi properties that I BRRRR without a partner as I wouldn't have profitable work history to show to lenders.

I sincerely appreciate any advice, and I thank you for your time reading through this post.

[Bryce Jamison]

Lots of options here. I see a lot of folks recommend offering labor in place of capital in partnership deals, but I don't know how likely that is for someone just starting out. The stories I've heard on BP of people having success doing this are people who have long track records of successfully finding, acquiring, and managing properties. I personally wouldn't put up all the capital and split equity with someone with no experience. 

For that reason I like the option of saving your own capital and investing yourself. An STR may be a challenging step one. They take a lot to manage. I advise your first deal be on "easy mode". To me this is either a house hack or a modest, class B or better, LTR, but if you're up for an STR you can definitely make more faster.