@Marcia Maynard great post thank you

@Marcia Maynard NOW THATS A STRATEGY !!! Congratulations on all of your success to you and your husband.

I'm also 38 and purchased my first rental last year.  I have since purchased two more.  My target market for investment units is a 3/2 townhome in an A-rated school district in a quality, family neighborhood.  Good luck! 

32

22 doors

multifamily in Louisville and Austin

My wife and I started around 58-59 back in 2016. We are now looking for our 15th project. We got started by selling our first rental property we acquired in 2009 to get the cash to buy, flip, rent, more houses. We created our LLC in October of 2016. Since then we have flipped/renovated 14 houses and currently have 9 long term rentals and one of our son has one we helped him with.

Our goal, we are mostly working on passive income for retirement. Shooting for 30 doors in next 2 years that all have nice positive cash flow.  We are also looking to consolidate and/ or moving to Multifamily in the near future.

Our why, very comfortable passive income in 2-3 years when I retire to give us the freedom to travel and relax more.  We also want to have a legacy to pass down to our 3 Sons and their families.  

Our Team, we have hired several contractors and they do most of the work.  We keep an eye on them closely and only use the ones we like and trust.  Believe me that is probably one of the more difficult tasks in this game.  We do some (very little) of the work but mostly contract out the big stuff like Kitchens and flooring, our contractors that we keep close are an Electric, Plumbing, Flat work (concrete), and a good foundation guy (basements leak and or crack around here and that work can be very expensive from a big companies).  We bid out drywall and painting.  We have our great handyman do most of the rest of smaller jobs.  The rest of our team consists of a good Realtor, Title Company, and Real Estate lawyer.  We use a property manager for all our rentals. We just add that to the cost of the deal when we do the numbers on the property. We have our renters properly vetted using a through process the renter applicant pays for.  Bad Credit, multiple legal cases, bad or no rental history, are all deal breakers.  

One good note is... If we had it to do over we would have found and used a good hard money lender from the start. Instead we used our money for down payments, using Bank loans and or interest only loans then refinanced the houses using a local bank to do most of the rehabs and flips. We have more invested in the process than we would like to have. Even with that, we are cash flow and cash on cash return positive because the numbers always worked. Be precocious and always have a bigger buffer than you think you need. It worked for us at the time however we will use a hard money lender from now for future deals. They are faster to close and you do not tie up your own money. Ironically, the very first time we went to a REI group meeting, the first thing we were told and I remember it every day was, "Don't use your own money to buy a house." We did not understand the gravity of that comment then, but I can't think of a better thing to say to a new investor. I thought to invest you had to use your own money. But that is not the case. I could not imagine how to buy a house without using our own money. But you can. I remember several times throughout our past years repeating things I had heard on Youtube or BP to my wife like, "We need to buy another house but with no money down." My wife's normal response was, "No one will loan us money for another house with no money down". But the will.

It is good to look for a lender and know where they are - ask other investors (REI groups) who they use and the fees involved and build some kind of relationship with a couple of them. Keep a good credit score - this is all crucial - then when you find a good deal, you will be able to get financed. That is the beauty of this business. Finding a deal is hard and you need to be fast and good at knowing what a good deal looks like. Money will be there if the deal is good. At first evaluate every deal as if you were going to buy it. See what the numbers are and discuss with another investor for thoughts. Once you have evaluated several deals you should be able to get the feel for what a good deal looks like. Don't overthink and don't be afraid to pull the trigger. Not doing a first deal within the first year probably means you are not suited for this.

Another good note...  Someone said, "With every deal you do, you either make money, or you learn something from it."  We have worked out payments with sellers, and purchased houses with cash, paid for all the repairs and financed out 100% in the end.  Those are the deals you really feel great about.  Fortunately, the most we have lost on a house is $500.  It was a house that could not be rented due to a new ordinance.  We had to sell it.  It was a good lesson.  

Good luck and hope to hear from others on this also.

@Jonah Freedman - Not to be too forward, why does this matter?  Trying to understand how this helps the BP community or what's trying to be accomplished by staying your age and number of units?

@Jonathan Paul Shortt

Just curious why you wouldn’t go through a turn key provider again? I sometimes think that might be a good route especially since my husband and I have full time jobs. I know there are good and bad aspects of turn key, so I was just curious about your experience.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks @Ryan Hazelwood for starting this thread. It's awesome reading everyone's story.

Everyone's input inspires me! I am looking fwd to this journey. The biggest issue for someone from NYC (me) is finding affordable properties in the surrounding states. The numbers for the properties in NYC just do not make sense. I will keep doing research til I find what I am looking for whether it's in NY or somewhere close by. Anyone else from NY/NJ/CT/PA ?

@Claudia Adams

The turnkey property has been just ok, and it is hard for me to be too upset about it, because it was my first REI purchase. Like most people say, at some point you have to take the plunge, and for me turnkey was the easy way in. Now that I have just a little bit of experience, I quickly realize that value add and short term rentals are much more lucrative ways to invest, but they do require more work.

In general the turnkey property has to generate money for multiple different people throughout the process that by the time it reaches you or I (the end buyer) we are paying close to retail which produces sub optimal returns. If I want 6-10% return on my money I might as well just throw it in a vanguard fund and leave it as that is an even more passive way to achieve that return, and the turnkey properties I have looked at will not return more than 6-10%. 

I also have a full time job but am putting some systems in place, especially for my STR that automate 90% of the business, and I will achieve 30%-40% CoC return.

Many much more experienced people on here will tell you the money is made when you buy, for me moving forward, buying turnkey makes it impossible to make the kind of return I am looking for.

Jonathan

Originally posted by @Ryan Hazelwood :

@Greg Gaudet thanks you for the inspiration! My aunt and uncle own a house on Maui. I can’t imagine what a “low income” property would even be worth considering theirs was like a couple million or more. How does section 8 housing work and is it worth it?

Wow this is a busy thread.. just getting to respond to this and it's 8 pages later lol 

The condos I buy are around 100-200k. I own 6 in one complex, and the average sales price there is about 140-150k (dated units selling for 120ish and nice ones up to 180ish). I bought mine for 70, 75, 95, 97, 30 and 50 (more detailed numbers on each unit and pics on my BP profile). 

For HUD you just post that you'll accept HUD in your ads. Then fill out a packet for them to review. Then they approve the rent amount, then send an inspector to make sure all appliances, outlets, doors, etc. all work. Basically anything that is health and safety - they don't care about permitting or legality from my experience. Then once approved the tenant moves in and HUD will pay a portion of their rent each month by direct deposit.

I collect $4,006 from HUD each month, and a little under $1,000 directly from the tenants (obviously not counting the tenants that don't have HUD assistance). I like this because I can cash flow even if all my tenants stopped paying their rent. And I can evict them, even if the total rent is 1400 for one unit, HUD paid 1300, and the tenant didn't pay their $100 portion. So if a tenant stops paying I can evict them, but cash flow during the eviction. But the reality is that tenants know they lose their HUD if they get evicted, so they generally don't let that happen. Like anyone else, you have to screen HUD tenants, probably more than others.

To answer your question; "is it worth it"; it's the same answer as every other question in REI - like should I buy in my own market or long distance, should I buy SFH or MF, etc. The answer is: it depends on what your goals are. HUD works great for me. But I know others that have hated it.

I turn 33 on Wednesday. 1 SFH and 2 Duplexes. Buy and hold for cash flow.

I am 42 Years old. Started investing in late 2017. I own 1 SFH, 3 duplexes, 1 Tri-plex, 1 4-plex, 1 office condo and have a 9 plex under Contract. Just a few months ago I sold an additional duplex and did a 1031 exchange into the 4 plex. So starting to trade up and purchase larger units using equity from smaller units. Everything cash flows well. I find, negotiate and handle financing on my deals then turn them over to a property manager.( I still have my full time job)If I'm being honest I don't feel like a realestate investor yet and I'm just waiting for someone to find out that I have just been faking it tell I make it. But I enjoy it and look forward to acquiring larger Multi family apartments in the coming year.

Hi. I’m 39, with 1 sfh, and 3 multi. I’m hoping to pickup 2 more multifamily properties this year.

Originally posted by @Andrew Reed :

I am 42 Years old. Started investing in late 2017. I own 1 SFH, 3 duplexes, 1 Tri-plex, 1 4-plex, 1 office condo and have a 9 plex under Contract. Just a few months ago I sold an additional duplex and did a 1031 exchange into the 4 plex. So starting to trade up and purchase larger units using equity from smaller units. Everything cash flows well. I find, negotiate and handle financing on my deals then turn them over to a property manager.( I still have my full time job)If I'm being honest I don't feel like a realestate investor yet and I'm just waiting for someone to find out that I have just been faking it tell I make it. But I enjoy it and look forward to acquiring larger Multi family apartments in the coming year.

That's Awesome what city and state and are you doing this full time?

Sam Properties are in Tooele, Utah. Not even part time. Property manager does all the heavy lifting.

Hey All!

I'm 32 y/o. I purchased my first property/investment when I was 25 y/o. That first deal took quite a looooooooooooooooong time before it ever saw any cash flow; around 6 years (story for another day). 

Currently I have 8 doors. 1 Condo (former primary residence), 4 single family homes (one undergoing renovations), and one beautiful triplex. 

Cash flowing netting just above 5k per month. 

Hey @Marci Stein Where in NY are you from? I am from NY and let's just say REI isn't so easy here!! The numbers don't add up and so I have been looking to invest out of state or the surrounding states.

@Sam Sala . I live in Manhattan and invest upstate - Sullivan and Ulster County . like you say , the numbers don’t make sense here in the city so I’ve been buying single families Upstate for $40 and 50,000 and the cash flow is been very strong . 
it’s been getting harder as the years go on though to find these great deals but they are still out there

@Ryan Hazelwood

33 / we have 3 SFR in B neighborhoods currently and on the hunt for the next project now!

Hey! I am 37yo, and I have 4 units (1 single, 1 triplex) but also sold 2.

I have been jumping around for a while trying to learn the business. Started at 33yo with a condo in the Dominican Republic, but I sold it 2 years later because of negative cash flow, and because I wanted to start the journey in the US. So, I used the equity to make a flip in Philadelphia. It was a great experience, but I didn’t like to sell it after all the work. I find more joy in holding. Now I am refinancing my first brrrr and doing a mix of house hacking/brrrr. But my goal is to get into multi because my single house is giving me way more hustle than the triplex while producing less.

Age 42, I have a duplex and a 10 unit multi-family apartment. I started 2 years back. Waiting patiently for the next deal.

@Ryan Hazelwood

35 years old. Own 72 doors.

Free and clear 12 SFH

Rest comprise of 4plexes, a couple of duplexes and 10,12,21 unit buildings all within 5 miles of each other.

Hello Ryan!

I am 33 and started investing in 2015. I own 3 townhouses and 1 fourplex. Since I started I did 2 house flips (the first one was a failed attempt at a BRRR deal). I started by saving up cash from overtime and buying a townhouse off the MLS. I think townhouses are a great place to start, even "big" problems aren't that expensive, but you still gain experience and cashflow. Good luck!

@Ryan Hazelwood I have 11 doors, one commercial building five garage and a beach rental. 68 years old all paid very stress-free life.

hi @Ryan Hazelwood bro no more reading...  now its time to JUMP! i was like u...read every book..and know what i did when i was ready to pull the trigger? picked up another copy of a book. No bueno. You can always learn from any mistake you make and read up about it on bp...but the fear of not knowing what to do (even tho i read alot) was huge for me until i jumped.. never looked back.. couldnt really call my first property a failure because its actually doing great now but i learned from my mistakes and learned awhole lot jumping in and doing the work, experiencing everything and reading BP with future projects and next properties etc.

Good luck brotha!