New to Real Estate · Frederick, MD · Member since 2021 · 39 posts · 36 votes
Hello All,
Josh and I are newbies to real estate. We are absorbing as much information as possible and setting goals. We are currently in our late 30’s and have 4 school age children. Over the past year we have been able to increase our savings and continue to work on our financial IQ. We have a general idea that we’d like to invest in North Carolina. Our issue is capital, we don’t have a lot of it.
Are there any investors that have a similar late start like we do, who’d be willing to share some tips or tricks?
Learning so much and so grateful for this community.
@Ciji Masser Welcome to the community and look forward to hearing about your successes.
It is never too late to start investing and you are in the right place to do it.
Before you get started, know why you want to get into real estate investing? Are you interested in cash flow or appreciation? Do you need immediate cash flow or can it wait? What is your appetite for rehab? This is going to be your guide throughout your roller coaster journey and will keep you looking forward through the good and bad days. After you know your why, work backwards to establish short-term and long-term goals to help you accomplish your why.
Understand what to you constitutes a great deal. This is typically a personal decision and can include specific returns you want to see from a deal. This will also help you stay focused and to not give in to a make a bad deal work.
One of the most important skills of an investor is deal analysis. You will want to practice analyzing deals everyday, even if you don't plan to buy yet. This skill is invaluable and a perishable skill.
Continue educating yourself everyday as there is too much information to learn in a short amount of time. Know that mistakes will be made, but the great thing about real estate is that over time and if purchased right, many mistakes can be mitigated or overcome. Don't be afraid to make the leap. Analysis paralysis can and does stop many from moving forward. Some of the best learning comes from jumping in and figuring it out.
@Jason Monroe thanks for the podcast share. I’m going to add that to my download this and listen this weekend. We are in the DC metro area so cost are extremely inflated here even when the market is less inflated.
@Kimberly Carver renting our current is something we have been back and forth on. It will need some work in the master bath and a good paint job, but all doable. We need to talk to our realtor and out that and weigh the option hard. We are also working on being more frugal and focusing our money to gain capital. Pregnant and moving is a tough one, I’m feeling your momma pain on that one. Congratulations and good luck.
@Brandon Wymelenberg a friendly neighbor how refreshing! Pitchers and Properties we follow them on Facebook and they meet the 3rd Monday at (man I hope I get this right) SmokeTown on the creek. It’s down by Sagner.
@Van Hauter man that’s a stellar cash flow on a 15 year note. Congratulations! I am also loving that this thread is getting conversations going. We too are seeing the pattern. I just texted Josh and said, we need to go to lunch with our agent. We need to go to the meetup on Monday and we need to start networking. This is our next step. We got the analysis down for right now, we at least know where the tools are. So now we need to put our feet in the water. It’s time! Thanks again for sharing those numbers the breakdown helps paint the picture!
@Thomas Weidner the humble advice is the best. 9 kids, man.. after the 3rd it’s just one more right. Congratulations on that alone! Richest Man in Babylon is sitting on the bookshelf already. It will likely be a read soon. We are in this for the long haul. We don’t mind the work, we just want to retire easy, build wealth for the family, and enjoy this amazing life together. Humble opinions are always appreciated. Good luck and stay connected.
@Dan Schwartz That's a very detailed break down of the DTI, I truly appreciate that. I didn't know exactly how the broke down. We used to have Josh carry all the debt, but then as normal life happened (prior to our real estate investing goals) we had to shift some to me and to be honest I need to build credit. We just met with our lender and she made a similar recommendation to remove some shared debt from me. Which is where we are focused for the short term. That will free me up and unfortunately push Josh up slightly. A sacrifice we are willing to make for the short term. Right now this is not a full time thing, its a weekend, afternoon, evening, we we aren't working thing. The goal is for it to become a full time thing. We are for sure in it for the long haul and the slow and steady wins the race. Thanks for the great breakdown on things that have been discussed in the thread. We greatly appreciate the varied levels of insight.
@Ciji Masser Welcome to the community and look forward to hearing about your successes.
It is never too late to start investing and you are in the right place to do it.
Before you get started, know why you want to get into real estate investing? Are you interested in cash flow or appreciation? Do you need immediate cash flow or can it wait? What is your appetite for rehab? This is going to be your guide throughout your roller coaster journey and will keep you looking forward through the good and bad days. After you know your why, work backwards to establish short-term and long-term goals to help you accomplish your why.
Understand what to you constitutes a great deal. This is typically a personal decision and can include specific returns you want to see from a deal. This will also help you stay focused and to not give in to a make a bad deal work.
One of the most important skills of an investor is deal analysis. You will want to practice analyzing deals everyday, even if you don't plan to buy yet. This skill is invaluable and a perishable skill.
Continue educating yourself everyday as there is too much information to learn in a short amount of time. Know that mistakes will be made, but the great thing about real estate is that over time and if purchased right, many mistakes can be mitigated or overcome. Don't be afraid to make the leap. Analysis paralysis can and does stop many from moving forward. Some of the best learning comes from jumping in and figuring it out.
Best of luck!
I agree with everything you said,...except the last line. Although there are many that will learn from making their own mistakes, it's a lot like jumping in a pool without knowing how to swim,...and thinking "I'll figure it out when I'm in the water". Those that figure it out, are the only ones that say it's a good idea. Those that don't, well, ask one of those squirrels that run across your path as you're driving down the road, how many times they can misjudge the cars approaching. The ones that made it, tell the others it's OK...RUNNN!!!,...then, Oh $h177.
Hi Joe! I completely agree with what you said about jumping in. I should clarify that statement that the jumping in comes after education. You need to have a foundational knowledge of what you are doing. Oftentimes, I see people who learn and learn and learn, but never take the next step of action because they are too afraid to make a mistake, so they continue to learn and learn. At some point if you want to do this, action has to happen. Learning is a lifelong process and when you feel like you have learned everything there is to know, then you are at risk of making mistakes.
Taking the dive is scary but it has to happen sometime. You'll learn from those experiences. Mistakes will always be made. It is the constant learning and foundational education prior to jumping in that may help you avoid the major mistakes.
Nice statement,...very nice. Let me add what I've told my daughter (now and adult...time flies), when she was in school.
The most important thing you learn in school is "How to Learn". The specifics of what you learn gets you from one grade/class to the next, and you will hopefully use it in the future, but what you learn is"how to Learn". Most of what you will learn of use comes after you're no longer in school, so you better learn how to learn, and to appreciate that.
That knowledge in school sets you up for your future knowledge. It always bugs me when the question of going to school at all is worth it. It most certainly is. Without it, you are limited in your ability to learn...and will never realize it.
@Ciji Masser congratulations on staring the journey in RE investing. As many have said, it not too late. I’m an investor in Raleigh Durham NC market and things are hot here. The biggest encouragement I’d have is work to build your cash reserves and get a line of credit if possible. In a hot market cash is king and most deals on market are going over appraised value. This means it will take more cash to get started. If you need feedback on where to look for property in NC please feel free to reach out. There is a lot of opportunity here.
Josh and I are newbies to real estate. We are absorbing as much information as possible and setting goals. We are currently in our late 30’s and have 4 school age children. Over the past year we have been able to increase our savings and continue to work on our financial IQ. We have a general idea that we’d like to invest in North Carolina. Our issue is capital, we don’t have a lot of it.
Are there any investors that have a similar late start like we do, who’d be willing to share some tips or tricks?
Learning so much and so grateful for this community.
Thanks
The Masser’s
Look into learning how to wholesale , or creative financing or Real estate agent. Those 3 practices don't require a lot of capital and at the same time will help you get you more into inside the real Estate world and and will make you more money too..
The only condition is that if you guys learning one of those 3 practices you have to be all in and full invested, it cant be half way .. and I guarantee it will work .. Also Self development Most of the time is not even money the problem or personal challenges is more about mindset and the perception you have of yourself .. Believe me I spent years thinking I couldn't until I started hanging out with the right people ( the people I aspire to be, Accountability partners ) , and in a matter of less than 3 month or maybe less I was flipping a house .. ( that's true story ) and I bet we have plenty of those here in the platform..
" Where Focus goes, Energy Flows" -Tony Robbins
So Focus, PLan on what you want and money , opportunities and network will come ( flow) ...
It's never too late! To put it into perspective ... I'm a late bloomer, got married and had a kid at 49, started investing in RE at 51, and now a year and a half later I'm 52 with 13 doors in NC, starting to wholesale, looking to do a syndication, and having a blast. Late 30s ... that would be an early start for me. Enjoy your youth and get started!
@Ciji Masser you won’t be able to save yourself into successful I eating, at best it will be mildly helpful. You need to grow revenue and use debt smartly.
You don’t mention how much you guys are making or what you owe on the house currently. Those things are pretty vital. Do you have other sources of capital? IRAs etc. big big difference if you guys are earning 60k a year vs. 160k once people start thinking about scraping together capital they often unearth random things.
If you can find enough for a down payment and get some kind of multi you will be on your way. That’s the time honored way to build equity. Take advantage of 30year mortgages and historically low interest rates. Take the hit on interest rates if your credit is a problem they will still be low.
Pick one in a good school district both for you and your renters. While the kids are small you can probably get away with a smaller unit.
Fix your house up and almost certainly sell it, though if it can make you money as a rental combine strategies and keep it.
@Jonathan R McLaughlin we are closer to 160. We have been in our house for almost 3 years and we refinanced in October to drop our rate from 4.5 to 2.75%. Josh is the only one on that note.
Talk to a lender ASAP and found out if you can secure financing. Stop reading books, attending seminars, etc., and hit the ground looking for a property. You can read books and attend seminars for 20 years. Put all that energy into looking for your first home. By the way, an FHA loan only takes 3% down.
@Ciji Masser Congrats on getting started! I’m 40, I’m a single mom with 3 kids and became a grandma this year. I also bought my first 2 investment properties this year. It’s never too late to start. I used a cash out refi on my primary to help me get started.
I also paid off all of my debt, freeing up my DTI.
Hey ma’am! Congratulations on making the jump! My wife and I are a single income home with 7.... yes SEVEN kids.
1) Best place to make money is your own pockets! Make sure your not wasting excess money in “wants “ vs “needs” . Trade in direct TV for netflix. Shop home/car insurance... negotiate on your bills... YES call your cell phone provider and talk to their retention dept... tell them you just can’t pay as much sometimes they will cut you a deal!
2) Bring your kids along for the journey ! Go look at houses talk about your goals ! My kids want to demo houses with me now and they talk about having cash flow and appreciation!
3) make your goals long term and rewind backwards until you have 1 action a day you can do... such as... goal : own a cash flowing property..... what I can I do today... I can analyze a few deals...
Congratulations again! Cant wait to hear what y’all end up doing!
@Sunny Hon we have only been at this for a little less than a month. We have read three books. Analyzed several deals and talked to our lender. We both have day jobs. So the time spent reading books isn’t keeping us from jumping feet first into this. Nothing really is. We wanted to get a few ducks lined up before we headed for the water.
@Meghan McGill congratulations. That’s an amazing achievement. We are looking at that option as well. I don’t hold the mortgage on our primary. So the lender informed me on what I needed to do to get financed for a traditional loan. So we are working on that now.