Single Income Family to Accredited Investors On Firefighter Pay
Would it be too much to say that Brandon Turner and Bigger Pockets helped us thrive in the era of COVID? I don’t think so. We’ve gone from two full-time jobs to one and we’ve become accredited investors almost by accident. But it started years before this virus existed. It started as a hobby. The point of this post is not to brag at what we’ve done; it is to express gratitude to this BP community and network for the education and encouragement it has given us in our journey. It is also to help those struggling to get started to believe that it is possible. If a firefighter and educator can do this, so can you! It takes time and commitment but it is very achievable.
My wife Veronica immigrated to this country at the age of 8 with her family and nothing else. Her parents worked multiple jobs to accomplish their American Dream. She followed the established path to a Master’s Degree and a great job as an Assistant Principal in a large high school but she was never home. I am a firefighter and love my job but we never had time together as a family. Real estate is what allowed Veronica to quit her job, increase our net worth, and be home with our kids when they needed to do distanced learning during Covid.
How does BP factor into this? We found the Bigger Pockets Podcast driving down a highway in the deep south during a road trip years ago. I was always interested in real estate but was always discouraged by the horror stories of midnight phone calls and trashed houses that I heard (mainly from people who had never owned rentals). We listened to every episode with this kid talking about sleeping in his Prius while traveling the country on a budget. He was so young and so positive and he was smart! We were probably listening on some antiquated iPod after just discovering what a podcast was - back when Brandon and Josh hosted and Detroit was the big joke. I couldn’t get enough!
Veronica and I got married and turned my Bachelor pad into a rental and had no idea what we were doing. Veronica went along with it because I sold her on how it could help us pay for college for our kids. We literally followed the tenant to the house she was moving out of to use her copier to make duplicates of the lease because we hadn’t planned it all out. It’s a little embarrassing in retrospect but it also makes me proud that we didn’t wait until we knew “everything” and we took action. Well the tenants tore out all the copper wiring like all the naysayers told me they would - JUST KIDDING! The tenant moved out of this house after a year and she left it better than she found it! We were starting to think maybe not all of those horror stories were true.
We started to save money for a down payment with a goal of ten houses in 20 years - before I retired. Another great tenant moved into the bachelor pad and we almost had the money for another down payment. It took three years to be ready to buy house number two! When we finally pulled the trigger, we bought a nice little house that needed basically paint and baseboards and when we were done we thought HGTV would be knocking on our door for a show contract at any minute! They didn’t. We were also, coincidentally, broke as we had scraped together everything we had to make that down payment and pay for the repairs. It had taken three years to accumulate that much money. To let it all roll on one deal was scary to say the least but again we rented this house to great tenants - but we didn’t ask to use their copier!
House Number 2: Paint and baseboards - no HGTV contracts : (
A couple more years and a lot of overtime hours and we were ready to buy our third property. We knew this was a real way to wealth; albeit a slow one! We once again got this one rented quickly to another great family. Meanwhile we were listening to Bigger Pockets and reading every book we could find about creative strategies while we were still investing the old boring way - with big down payments. One day Brandon unveils this acronym - "BRRRR". I listened and my mind was blown!
We were talking about what we were doing and how great our tenants were with enthusiasm to anyone who would listen. A couple from church mentioned they would be interested in partnering with us. I couldn’t believe it. Private money found us instead of us finding private money. It was actually scary to hear people wanting to invest with us. What did we do next? I did what I do best - talk! I briefly described how private lending works (from what we had heard but not yet done). They said that sounded like exactly what they would be interested in and we showed them the next deal we found. They have now lent us approximately a million dollars and have been paid back with interest on every one of those dollars.
The types of rehabs (including massive foundations) that we would get comfortable with later: (still no HGTV contract)
In the four years since door number three, we’ve grown to twenty doors now and our next benchmark is 30 doors but the real success story is that Veronica was able to quit her job three years ago and work from home. We were able to buy houses with virtual closings from trailheads in the mountains while we raised kids, spent time together, travelled (about a month a year), and we were prepared when this pandemic appeared. We hunkered down like the rest of the world but we were together. I would bathe in disinfectants and then hug my kids after a shift at the fire station. We grew a garden. We rode horses. We built an off-road trailer and camped in the mountains. We weren’t driving fancy cars but we were together and we were secure. We were living our “why”. This is what it was all for.
We’ve now done flips, owner finance deals, private lending, and our favorite - rentals. Our focus is still rentals. What we accidentally created while pursuing cash flow was net worth. We looked at our financial statement during a re-finance and were shocked to see that we could now easily qualify for accredited investor status by the net worth qualification. I could not believe it! This isn’t the kind of thing you ever expect when you start a career as a firefighter or an educator. That number was powerful but what it represented to me was safety in the midst of chaos. Our life is simple but it’s the life we designed. We aren’t building a massive machine but know that we could if it fit our “why”.
We really hope that this motivates or inspires you. We know there are many who have done more deals and grown faster but we’re very happy with what we have been able to do and it is very much thanks, in part, to the Bigger Pockets podcast, books, and resources. One day we will share our story on the podcast in more detail - we want to inspire others the way we were inspired. And as my Grandaddy always used to say, "keep the main thing, the main thing"!
Wishing you the best,
Will and Veronica Pritchett
