Charleston, SC · Member since 2018 · 9 posts · 47 votes
My husband and I discovered BP this summer and are ready to start invest! We have enough capital and are actively searching for deals and running the numbers. It’s exciting!
Anyone else got started at or around 35? Tell me about your journey. Our goal is to live off of our RE investments for retirement.
@Carson Wilcox I like that response. I am 47 and just getting started (although I did own one out of state rental from 2005 to 2016) but never scaled. I'm interested in flipping and have pretty much the same goals you mentioned except I have a full time career. I'm hoping to get out of this corporate world and do investing full time at some point, baby steps!
Age is no barrier. You have probably heard the story of Col. Sanders, the founder of KFC. He didn't become a professional chef until he was 40 years old, when he purchased a gas station which served southern food. He was 49 when his famous chicken recipe was perfected. By the time he was 66, he ended up selling his one restaurant for a loss, but kept his popular chicken recipe. Broke at the age of 66, he packed up his car and traveled the country franchising his recipe. By the time he turned 73, he had franchised 600 locations. He sold the company when he was 75 years old and it was only then that he gained notoriety as the iconic Col. Sanders in advertising.
Is it possible to start when you are 35? Of course it is. Your success is only determined by how hard you are willing to hustle to make it happen.
I just turned 36 earlier this month. I am under contract to sell my first flip. It closes on 11/30. That will be deal number 1. It took over a year because of a number of... educational issues.... but I have learned a TON during this time and still stand to make a decent amount of this one. Next, I plan to keep flipping to build capital and slowly accrue rentals... looking at an interesting deal on three properties that total 11 units right now. We shall see! I struggle with having started this late sometimes... but I have to remember that I cannot do anything about that now. Just time to start steamrolling in a forward direction!
My husband and I discovered BP this summer and are ready to start invest! We have enough capital and are actively searching for deals and running the numbers. It’s exciting!
Anyone else got started at or around 35? Tell me about your journey. Our goal is to live off of our RE investments for retirement.
I started at 34. When I got started I looked at it from the perspective that I was 10+ years behind. Keeping that in mind I knew I would have to be willing to be more aggressive.
Looking back, I realize that I was actually being quite conservative.
I started just after your cut off at 34. I actually think for many people that's a good time to start because it takes some time to raise the capital necessary to fund down payments and repairs. I know that some people on BP advocate for saving every penny from your first job and buying your first rental as soon as possible, leveraging as much as possible, and going for that 30 year old retirement. And for all of the people that worked for, Awesome!!! Good for you.
But I think that the more practical path for most people is one similar to mine: Work and invest in retirement accounts / index funds for 5-10 years until you have a few hundred thousand dollars of net worth. Then take a chunk of that (one third to one half) of it to fund a few real estate purchases and see how they go. If they go well, keep on going, putting money into both index funds and rentals, distributed however you feel comfortable. It's less risk, possibly less reward, but probably more practical for a lot of people than eating Ramen for 5 years, house hacking with a wife, a kid, and one on the way, and praying that the appraisal comes in high enough for you to refinance and try it again or waiting another 5 years for your savings to accumulate again to the point where you can buy another.
We bought our 1st property, a $250k multi we would live in, in 97 when I was 35. 2nd in 04, 3rd in 2012, for a total of 13 units including ours. We have lived rent free that whole time, currently equivalent to about $40k/yr in rent, and now have around $100k cashflow before non-routine maintenance and repairs on a rent roll of over $200k, with a net worth of around $4m.
Number of doors is not everything. Location and timing matters a great deal.
@Carson Wilcox. Well said. I’m on a similar path - wife primary earner, focused on flipping 1st property now, repeat to build up capital and then BRRRR either locally or out of state. Just noticed we are close as well. I’m in Sacramento. Wish you the best on your journey.
Doesn't matter the age just get started! You could be 80 years of age and wanting to get into real estate as long as you have a great system in place and know how to run your numbers it really doesn't matter when you get started. JUST DO IT!
I'm 39 and close on my first deal next week. I spent my 20's being an idiot wasting money, spent my 30's stabilizing, and the next 20 years are all about growth.
"If only I started 20 years ago" thoughts won't do you many favors, but it does help motivate you to accelerate.
@Carson Wilcox. Well said. I’m on a similar path - wife primary earner, focused on flipping 1st property now, repeat to build up capital and then BRRRR either locally or out of state. Just noticed we are close as well. I’m in Sacramento. Wish you the best on your journey.
@Kevin Barnard I’m thinking of purchasing a duplex using private money. This would be my first deal. Do you think it’s smart to have the PM lender pay cash for the house to get a better purchase price and then refinance it to get a bulk of their cash back? Let me know your thoughts.
@Raymond Mackay I'm by no means a sophisticated investor yet. It would really depend on the numbers. That's basically the BRRRR method which is a great tool. Bigger pockets has BRRRR calculator you can use 5 times for free under the tools section . You just need really accurate numbers on rehab , rents , refinance rates and equity position . Don't forget to give yourself a buffer and multiple ways out if the refinance takes too long, doesn't happen, falls short and so on . Also be very calculated of interest on private money and hold time and what would happen if you hold the private money longer than expected . I'm by no means a pro and haven't utilized private money or the BRRRR strategy myself. Hope that helps. Lots of other member I'm sure have lots of real world experience to offer ya .
@Danielle McClelland I’m 36 with 1 rental, actively pursing a triplex deal right now. Focused on buy and hold multifamilys to replace my income and retire within 10 years.
I'm 39, technically I started at 27 doing a full Reno on my first house and also I did a flip and rental but both were a struggle as it was during the 08 fallout so I got spooked and focused on climbing the ladder at work and a big home remodel. I started getting the itch again about 2 years ago. I do kind of wish I had stayed with it but its helped me finish other things and build up Capital as I pretty much always knew I would get back into it. Fixing to close on my 2nd BRRRR Single family and hope to get to atleast 10 by age 45.
@Danielle McClelland, Hello, I bought my first 2 family at 25 but it was not as an investor. I then bought my first single family house years later and kept the 2 family for a while, however I didn't start investing until I was in my 50's. LOL I remember my dad telling me when I started working for the company I work for now at 21, " If I was your age I would buy all the houses the bank would let me have". My dad did have rentals, and they only reason I didn't do it back then was I was young, scared, didn't make that much money or took the time to read up about it. I believed him, but let lack of know how and "fear" stop me then. And I didn't stumble onto bigger pockets back then, because well they didn't exists..lol.
You are young still, go for it big time! Remember what rich dad poor dad said, not I can't but how can I! Age is what you make it, no one can ever guess my age so if you feel young (and in your case you are) do it! You have all the info you need right here on BP!
@Dennis Dahlberg
First investment was at age 42. A partnership in 50,000 square foot new construction that houses my employer. Then in June of this year I added two neighboring fourplexes. So 8 doors. I’m 50 now...
Started in my early 40s; my business partner started in his early 50s. One big difference for us is making numerous investments in other areas outside of real estate before diversifying our personal portfolios to include real estate. Ironically, both of our wives thought we were nuts to start investing in real estate...not anymore. In addition, having a business partner for REI has allowed me to continue working full time, continue investing in other ventures that are not at all related to real estate, and also helped split the time and financial burden associated with REI itself.
@Heather Schmidtknecht
We have similar goals. I initially looked at REI simply as a method to bump retirement income. The plan is shaping up. Congrats to you.
My husband and I discovered BP this summer and are ready to start invest! We have enough capital and are actively searching for deals and running the numbers. It’s exciting!
Anyone else got started at or around 35? Tell me about your journey. Our goal is to live off of our RE investments for retirement.
Love it! I'm about to turn 35. I started working in RE when I was 18 and decided I wanted to invest then. But being super conservative and risk adverse, it wasn't until I found BP and "the Best REI advice ever" podcast that I became confident enough to take the plunge.
I've acquired two rentals in the last year and my third is scheduled to close next Friday. With that one I'll be bringing in around 18k a year in cash flow, which makes me hopeful that if I keep up this pace I should easily be able to retire from working full time for someone else by age 38. Although I don't plan to remain at this pace, I place to scale much larger in the next year. After I acquire 2-3 more of the same type of properties I've been buying I plan to buy small MF properties. I should be able to be earning 100k in positive cash flow within 3 years. Then hopefully 250k within 5 years...