Reintroduction, Contractors, Advice, ATL Meetup

[Asia Jones]

Hello BP world I want to start by reintroducing myself, my name is Asia. I go into the whole real estate thing while I was in college. It all started after one semester we had to get this book called Rich Dad Poor Dad, and from there I knew real estate is what I wanted to do. After getting the itch I began doing tons of research. I stumbled across a webpage call “Real estate in your twenties” by Brandon Turner. I read all his post and studied them religiously. Then he made a post about moving to a site called “Bigger Pockets”. The site was a wealth of Knowledge and I was glad I found it before I paid for another Rich dad Poor dad class.

So now I wanted to get my first property but couldn’t afford it. I learned about house hacking and still didn’t have a steady flow of income. That’s when I asked myself how could I get this house. Then I stated working multiple jobs for a few years to get out of debt and save a DP. Once I was out of debt I get stuck in this thing called analysis paralysis. After 3 years of learning and being scared to make the first move I finally got my first property in April 2016. It’s a nice 3/2 in Lawrenceville, Ga. I'm currently living in it renting two of the rooms out until I refi and move mid 2017. Only thing that needs to be done to it is some minor updating and making it more modern.

With that being said I need to know if anyone knows of any contractors in the Gwinnett County area that can do electric, drywall, bathroom remodel, and flooring. Please let me know thank you. Also are there any BP meetups in the Atlanta area or good a local REIA?

[Michael Lee]

Hello and welcome to this website!  I found this website about 18 months ago while medically recovering and I am still recovering medically.  It is great to hear that you are involved with this at such an early age.  It may have been my timing but I at that age I was only thinking about partying.  It is also good to hear you finally made your first purchase doing a "house hacking" to get your first deal.  Always remember to do the math anaysis and try to look at your prospective properties or at lease have a clause in the sales contract that will allow you some time (usually 10 to 15 days) to make a detailed inspection and possibly back out of the deal without a penalty that will no hurt you too much.

The are several things you might want to do before you get too far along the way. One thing, th you may have allready done, is to form some sort of corporation or a LLC. That will help you not have "personal" responsibility for something that is blamed on your property. You might have to hire an attorney and/or a CPA to advise you then knowing what you have selected to do ( as a niche ). Another thing you should consider is to get your financing figured out. Get a "loan letter" from the lender that states the time needed to close your loan and the maximum amount you qualified for. A copy of that letter put in with your offer package might give owner a comfort factor knowing you will be able to close.

Another thing you might do is find a convenient location for your office and have minimum distractions.  You can office at your home, just be able to close it off and not be distracted by personal things that need to be done.  Have your plan and goals written down will help you get things done. Set your goals high and put them where you can read them every day.  Celebrate when you complete major and non-major things complete. Make your bigger goals broken down to smaller items that make it a large goal when all put together.  Education on financial and real estate things might help you.  Education goes on forever.  Make time for that.  That will help you be under control when something bad happens.  Being in control on everything will help you be the one that is mostly responsible.

Do not make excuses and blaming on somebody else when there is a problem.  All of the people involved will look at you for answers typically.  Be prepared for that.  Failures will happen, and when they do, learn from them and keep on going.  Do not quit.  Just hope that the good accomplishments are more positive than your failures.  Do not try to do everything yourself.  That is where having a primary Team of local and experienced people in what you do will help.  The primary Team is made up of typically an Attorny, real estate Agents or Brokers, CPA's (or smart accountants ), Inspectors, General Contractors, and Handymen.  Having that Team will help you to be successful and less to worry about.

Track everything that you do on paper that will help you someday on your income and expense.  Regularly viewing of them might help you reduce expenses and possibly increase you income on your projects.  Have a plan and stick to it.  Do what is simple and average in that neighberhood on your early projects.  Do not take any chances on projects early on.  Knowing your market area well should help you.  Do not assume that a person titled as a success or a professional knows more than you.  They need to prove themselves and their knowledge.  Until then be a sole responsible person that knows what they are doing. 

Good luck to you!