Investor · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2017 · 791 posts · 1k+ votes
My first real estate investment was in 2010. I kept acquiring properties, sometimes using the BRRR strategy. I've been without a day job for 1.5 years looking for more deals and got a couple large portfolios in 2016. That hit our passive income goals but we had to recoup cash buffer.
It's officially official, we are free and neither of us have to work!
Looking forward to living life with my wife and both of us being able to do what we want when we want.
Celebrating with a well aged cigar from the year it all started. And some of my top shelf bourbon.
From someone who is just scratching the surface education, not even investing, congratulations to you and your wife's success both now and in the future. This was certainly an inspiration to read.
Austin Fruechting I just read your blog and all I can say is woooowwww for such amazing accomplishment !!!!
Congratulation Sir !!!! ....still deciding how and when to start, but your story is motivating a lot of new to be real estate investors (investing can be daunting for beginners) that haven't started to pursue their financial goals and dreams yet !!!!
Thanks for checking the blog out! I have quite a few new articles I'm working on so there will be more coming!
What great news! Another one out of the rat race. Congrats to you and your family. Be sure to keep teaching people using your electrifying story! We need more entrepreneurs in this country! LOVE to hear success stories like this!!!
I'd love to hear about your "Big WHY" list of items that led you to your actual freedom number. What are the things you both agreed were associated with your highest level of happiness, and the associated spend that added up to around 7-8k in necessary cash flow?
@Michael R. - Sure man. As far as our budget, the nice thing KC is relatively cheap. We have a house we love in walking distance to a cool bar and restaurant area (Westport for those familiar with KC). All in with utilities and repairs under/just at $2k per month.
Then of course there's cell/internet/gym membership/insurance/wife's haircuts/etc all the other closer to fixed costs. $1k per month
All the variable stuff we talked about if money didn't matter, what we do and how often, then calculated.
We love to travel. We've done Iceland, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, and a good amount stateside. That's something that was important to us. Even though we could have bought more properties, you still have to enjoy life! So that was one trade off we did not make. (a big trade off was up until January I had a car and a work truck. 188k miles on my car, 203k on the truck. So I had 107 rental units and my vehicles both had about 200k miles)
Ok, so back to the travel... we talked about what type of travel, how often, etc we'd like to do. Then tried to figure out approx cost of that. We plan on one extended international trip a year, or two shorter ones, plus a lot of overloading to places to hike and backpack stateside (in the process of building my rig). We came up with $1500 per month over regular expenses
Grocery budget; $600 a month - we know that's the level that we don't have to think about prices. We want to be able to cook whatever we want. If we want to cook steaks multiple times we can.
We're just at $5,100 right now.
I'm a big cigar nut - so let's say $300. My wife likes wine, I like bourbon and beer - another $300. Entertainment (things like concerts/chiefs games/etc) $300.
Eating out - we like to eat out and try new restaurants, and drinks with meals - $1k. We figured up to 3 meals out with drinks and tip, average $80 per meal.
So there's $7,500.
I can't think of anything else I'd want to do that costs money. And I shot high on the numbers, I don't think we will average that much. I calculated conservatively just like on my REI ! lol
@Eric Delcol - Mutual Savings in Leavenworth KS - most of my properties are in the Leavenworth/Lansing area - just under a 40 minute drive from downtown KC
@Drew Eldridge - I'm working on a blog called goodlifeinten to help others. The wife and I will do a lot of traveling, hiking ,and exploring. I'll keep looking to put together deals. I love that part. But I can do that from anywhere with a computer. Retirement certainly doesn't mean you cease being productive! It's just that you get choose what you are being productive with.
Hey @Austin Fruechting congratulations man! 107 units across 49 properties in less than 7 year is a real accomplishment. I hope you enjoy that well deserved cigar. Good luck on your next 7 years.
I love to see how other people describe their perfect life and hammer down to what truly brings them happiness. All too often, I think, most people assume that a happy life requires fancy cars/houses and a six figure income, and instead of it acting as motivation it cripples them from taking action. BP is rich with so much information about how to build your network, or find lenders, or analyze deals, but it's rare to see blogs or discussions that task the new investor to sit down and figure out their "Big WHY" so I thank you for detailing yours.
You said it in a previous comment, something to the tune of, once you figured out how you wanted your life to look (the destination) it became easier to stay motivated and set real goals (the map).
Thanks for the inspiration! I love seeing different paths that people have taken to FI, and that you knew when enough was enough.
Do you plan to maintain the deal structures, or buy out partners over time? Seems like a lot of partners and investors to meet with, but you did say that you had a good attorney for your partnership agreements. Have you been sued by any tenants or partners? How many hours per week do you work managing of your properties?
It's always empowering to see people who grind their way to their financial freedom goals. It helps us newbies who are looking for our first deals to stay focused and take action. I've subscribed to goodlifeinten so that I can read your story in depth and take note of the golden nuggets you share with the world as you add more content. Thank you for inspiring us.
@William R. - I am VERY selective in who I partner with. I never sought out investors, they have come to me. We line every possible thing out in the operating agreement and discuss exactly how everything will work and operate well in advance. If I don't think I would get to run things my way or I get a hing that there may be a personality conflict, I would pass on them. This included telling a high net worth guy that was wanting to do several $3-5mil apartment complexes that I didn't want to partner with him.
No amount of money to me is worth dealing with people I don't want to deal with. That mismatch came to light when I had just put a portfolio deal for just over $2mil under contract. Took it to him, he was interested but I didn't like how he handled the meeting, so the next morning I told him thank you for your time but I'm not interested in partnering with you. I didn't know where all the money was going to come from without him, but I wasn't worried.
No never sued. I rarely have to meet with partners/investors. They get periodic updates and checks with reports every 3 to 6 months.
AVERAGE HOURS PER WEEK? Including the reports for investors, end of year quickbooks stuff (accountant does actual taxes), and the monthly upkeep... no more than an average of ONE hour per week.
@Austin Fruechting Congrats on being able to truly say that you are your own boss, and can completely control your future! I know 7 years is a very short amount of time to get to that point, and a lot of hard work went into it.
As a first time REI in Phoenix, I would love to speak with you about how you got your start, and what really created your success in such a short period. I know you had the bulk deal with the retiring REI, but you obviously had enough success already to finance that deal.
Thanks for any help and knowledge you can provide.
Your story is incredibly inspiring. I'm planning to be where you are in 7-10 years. I love to travel too so maybe we'll run into each other. :)
Since you don't seem to mind questions... how much do you think being able to do this full-time had an impact? Right now I'm pursuing this in my spare time since I've got a high-paying W2 job which helps me save capital for more investments.
@Eric Kindall - that is super open ended. I'm starting up a blog (goodlifeinten) to try to share what I've learned and that will take a long time to get it all out on paper. There's a lot of posts there now if you want to check them out. If you have any specific questions I'd be happy to try to answer.
@Greg Moritz - it didn't change things too much, but I owned a little retail business so I had some flexibility. The reason I got out when I did was that was the time I found a buyer for that business. Even though I seller financed most of it, it was still tough to find a buyer. So my getting out of my day job was more about just having to seize the opportunity when it was there as opposed a need for more time in REI.
If you have a good property manager, and good systems on your side, it's pretty easy. Again, I spend on average one hour a week to stay on top of 107 rentals. The time is just in doing the deal, but that time becomes less and less with experience. If you're doing BRRR you'll need an excellent GC or project manager that you don't have to babysit as well.