Time To Be Held Accountable

[Jon Ferraiolo]

Hello all,

2019 was a life changing year for me. I got engaged to the love of my life in May of 2019, and in July, I took a job to start a new business channel that promptly made us move from Hoboken, NJ to Atlanta, GA. Cannot say how much we are loving Atlanta!

I have for 4 years now told people I want to get involved with real estate. I have read some books Brandon has wrote, listened to podcasts, and webinars. I've been a pro member for a few years, but I've never taken action. Being true to myself, I've been lazy and scared. Scared not only of failure, but also success. What would life be like if I actually did accomplish my dreams?

2020 that will not be the case. I get married in October of this year, in which I will no longer just be supporting myself, I will have a family.

I turn to BiggerPockets, with this first post, because I want to set a precedent for my actions this year. I find this site extremely motivating, and helpful. Plus just like a team, you don't want to let others down, and if I don't say what I intend to do this year, I will feel like that.

Here are my goals that I am setting for myself - they are relatively simple, and easily achievable:

-Comment on 2 posts a day - reading them will help me build my knowledge

-Listen to 3 podcasts or webinars a week

-Analyze 1 deal a day - a real deep dive, try to figure out estimated rehab costs

-join the local REIA and BiggerPockets groups to network

Over the years I have not been able to consistently put it all together, so I forget things. I may not be able to buy a property in 2020 due to paying/planning for a wedding, and building up this channel for my actual job, while still getting acclimated to a whole new state. However, I feel this will lay down a solid foundation to put myself on the path to success. Who knows maybe after the wedding we might be able to buy a rental property.

My fiancé, is fully on board for this, and that is a huge win having her support. My plan is to buy and hold, ideally using the BRRRR method (bought the book). I would love to make my market be here in Georgia, Arkansas, or Alabama (I'm a huge Auburn fan). I need to learn how to identify strong rental markets, and I know this site will help in all aspects.

Thank you all for the wonderful help over the years, to continue to help me, and I hope to be able to contribute to this community as well in anyway I can.

Here's to the new roaring 20s!

-Jon Ferraiolo

[Kimberly L Osborne]

Congratulations!!!  My husband and I have purchase many homes over the years.  My advise to you is to jump in but smartly.  Best thing we did to start was purchase a modest first home with a very low monthly payment as a primary residence.  Then the next year we decided to get a rental home BUT at first we thought we would move and live in it and rent out our old home.  Did not work out so we rented the second larger home and stayed in the smaller first home.  That worked out really well for us so then the next year, we purchased a 3rd larger home (about the same size as the second home) and because our primary residence was so cheap and our 2nd home was rented and had income to offset the mortgage, we easily qualified for the 3rd house.  If we had moved into the 2nd house, we would not have been able to qualify for a large mortgage and good rates for the 3rd house.  After that we kept getting raises at work, our rentals were 100% occupied, we had funds to purchase a house every year for the next 10 years while continuing to live in the starter home for all of those 10 years.  In year 11 we finally moved with our two sons into a beautiful new 5 bedrm 5 bath home in a fantastic community.  We've been married 26 years now and credit our finances in large part to our initial conservative  lifestyle.  

We tried lots of different types of housing.  Right now I'm in a gorgeous foreclosure that needed lots of cosmetic work.  Originally, our first 7 houses were new construction because they were immediately ready for renters, we could be under contract for 3-6 months while we found a renter to move in day 1, and new construction offered the best financing and mortgage terms.  We liked to find a growing area and purchase before the neighborhood even had roads.  Basically a lot of our first renters were people who were also buying in the neighborhood but their house would not be ready for 6-9 months.  We called it buying along the path of progress.  Get in before the commercial stores were built to get the introductory pricing.  

Best of luck to you friend.  I hope you have a wonderful ride.