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Updated over 1 year ago on . Most recent reply

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Dwayne Austin
  • Investor
  • Cincinnati, OH
5
Votes |
4
Posts

New agent/investor agent in Cincinnati with a story to tell...

Dwayne Austin
  • Investor
  • Cincinnati, OH
Posted

Hello all!

My name is Dwayne and I've been living in the Cincinnati area for about 4 years now. I've been licensed for a little over a year, but really had no specific idea about what I wanted to do with my license. After taking a deep internal dive, I now understand my purpose as an agent. 

I have a passion for helping others to create, find, and take advantage of opportunities to buy a house due in large part to my own experience. I had MAJOR help when I bought my first home. In 2010, I lived in Arizona and was active duty Air Force. This was a few years after the housing crisis and there were so many foreclosed properties in Arizona. In a bid to get people into these homes and paying property taxes, the state of Arizona rolled out a plan for active duty members that paid 22% down on any house in the state that had previously been lived in. We settled on a 4 bed 3 bath 2055 square foot home in the suburbs of Tucson for $162,360. The state paid about $35,000 down for us and our mortgage was about $820/month ($123k loan amortized over 30 years at 4.5%). Since I used my VA loan, I didn't have to put any money down (Though we did have to pay about 5k in closing costs, but got about 2k back at closing). This opportunity was a blessing bestowed upon me and I got into the real estate business so that I can pay it forward.

Now we moved away from Arizona a few years after buying the house, so we rented it out for years at $1,395/month. We eventually sold this Arizona house 11 years later and made a lot of money, but in retrospect we should have kept it. It turns out, the people who bought the house from us were investors. When I found out they were renting the house out for $3,000 my head spun around. All I could think about was how we had a house with an $800 mortgage and we could have rented that thing out for 3k and probably cleared about $1,900/month in positive cash flow after expenses. I guess you don't know what you don't know. Even though we'd been renting the house out when we moved away from Arizona, we really never had the foresight to look at the house as a major investment opportunity beyond simply gaining equity each year. But you live, you learn, and you move forward. 

I'm happy to be here and happy to help out wherever I can. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Thanks for taking the time to get to know a little bit about me.

  • Dwayne Austin
  • Most Popular Reply

    User Stats

    1,300
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    808
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    Hamp Lee III
    • Real Estate Agent
    • San Antonio, TX
    808
    Votes |
    1,300
    Posts
    Hamp Lee III
    • Real Estate Agent
    • San Antonio, TX
    Replied

    Welcome to BiggerPockets!

    I look forward to reading about your future investing successes!

    I’m active duty Air Force retiring next February!

    I wish you all the best.

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