Where I begin (again)

The first time I was introduced to real estate investing was, like with most people, on HGTV watching real estate investors breaking down walls and pretending they didn't know about the wall issue that causes such a panic during the episode (I know enough now that if you did a proper inspection before closing on the property, half of the dramatic issues that we see on TV would have never come up during the rehab process). It was entertaining watching them solve their issues with the property and seeing that with a little hard work, you can make $35,000 in a few weeks. 

I never thought to act on it doing it myself. I was in high school and only watched because my mom refused to watch anything I liked so I sat, I watched, and I observed. I wanted to be making that kind of money myself but I couldn't imagine or even fathom how to come up with that amount of money to buy a property, and let's not talk about the fact that I didn't know (and still don't know) the first thing about construction. Fast forward to May 2019, I've moved, I'm in college full-time, and I still watched HGTV shows on Netflix religiously. I'm in my car doing food delivery for GrubHub and I hear a commercial come on the radio (my tape that I used for an aux cord was stuck and wouldn't play my music so I listened to the radio) inviting me to come out and spend a few hours learning about real estate investing and how I could get started earning the big bucks. For an online college student with $55,000 in debt using a beat-up 2002 Honda Civic that was ready to break down any minute for GrubHub as their primary source of income, I could use some of those big bucks there were advertising about. 

I was at a red light and I typed the website link into my phone's notes pad (not so legal, I know, but I was borderline desperate) and finished my shift. When I got home, I registered my boyfriend and myself up for the seminar at the end of the next week. I was excited and didn't know what to expect other than to be making $35,000 in a few weeks after learning what I needed to know. 

Before the seminar was over, I got sucked up into the pitch of attending a three-day seminar for $200. My boyfriend who's not easily persuaded was also hooked and ready to learn all that we could about real estate investing. I was so moved, I bought an additional course on a specific kind of investing (tax liens). I knew that I was going to take all of the material we got from the seminar, study it, and be ready for the next course. 

Well, after attending the first seminar, I got impatient and researched what I would learn at this three-day course. I found blog after blog about how this company was going to pitch to me a $50,000 course. Remember I said I had $55,000 in debt? I was devastated, especially because I had spent money I didn't have for this seminar. I kept researching the upcoming seminar and I found a few people say although they didn't pay for the additional courses, they still learned a lot. 

We decided that after some research into real estate on YouTube and discovering BiggerPockets, we didn't need a $50,000 course, I'm a business student and he has two business degrees; we know how to research for information. I said that I'd take some of the most detailed notes I'd ever take and use that to build upon our knowledge and that's exactly what I did. I have sold 25-pages worth of handwritten notes from that three-day seminar. The presenter even joked about how I had so many notes. I didn't care. I'd rather have hand cramps then come out of pocket for $50,000 which I more than likely wouldn't have been able to attain anyways; my credit was in the trash (still is to this day) because of my high credit utilization and lack of paying my bills on time. I wanted my $200 worth of material. 

While some spent $50,000 for a business-in-a-box, I spent the entire summer learning all that I could, speaking with real estate agents and title companies. I went hardcore on my real estate investing business and had some solid momentum. I went as far as sending out 150 letters and placing 300 calls. Of that, we scheduled one property tour. My boyfriend and I lost some steam, we knew that we shouldn't get our hopes up thinking we would strike it rich the first go-around but we quickly ran out of money and time by October (we officially started our business in August 2019). 

By the end of November, I stopped sending out letters, they were too expensive for me to continue on a freelancer's wage and I stopped driving for dollars. I honestly got tired of the word 'no' even though I was told by multiple people to not give up, no matter how many 'no's I get. The business was all of a sudden draining on me and I stopped paying attention to our business. I had a lot going on at the time and it was taking up a lot of my time to where I didn't have time for anything else, my schoolwork included. 

I haven't spoken about real estate until last week (other than the few times my awesome real estate agent friend, Patrick, would call to check on us and our progress). 6 months of nothing about real estate. 6 months of forgotten terms and concepts. It makes me sad that something I was so passionate about and couldn't shut up about a year ago (that three-day seminar started May 17, 2019) was forgotten. After a year of freelancing and doing odd jobs to make a living, I recently started working full-time again because I realized I lacked the discipline I needed to be a successful freelancer and got really behind on my bills. Now that I have been working full-time for the past three months, I've started to climb out of the hole I had only dug deeper for myself over the past year and I am working at paying off my credit cards, at the very least, to free up some cash I can use for our business(es). 

This week has been very eye-opening to me on what I've been missing that truly makes me happy, real estate and wealth generation. I recently finished a book by Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee), Crush It! Why Now is the TIme to Cash in on Your Passion, and I don't know exactly where in the book where it clicked to me that I needed to get back to the things that I have been passionate about. I finished that book four days ago and I've recently started reading, The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No and Low Money Down by Brandon Turner. A lot of the terms of real estate are coming back to me (for the life of me, I couldn't remember what a HELOC was until earlier today) and I've been working on our business plan for the past week. 

I don't know what it is about this time around, but I've got a better feeling that things will turn out for the better for us. Gary Vee gave me the confidence I needed to ask my job if I could go part-time (doesn't make any sense for me to quit my job any time soon like I did the last time - well, I got laid off but that's another story) so I can focus on finishing my degree (two more classes!!) and work on my business(es). I was shocked to know that my request to switch to part-time had been approved - thanks Gary Vee!! So now, I'll be able to add some flexibility back in my week to work on our investing business and another business my boyfriend and I run together and still be able to freelance to come up with the missing wages from not working full-time. 

I still am feeling very overwhelmed just like I did in the beginning of my real estate journey, but now that I know a few things, I feel a little better. My business plan hasn't been worked on so much in the past couple of days but only because I've been doing so much reading lately, see why I need more flexibility? I plan on finishing this investing book and then I have a lot more to read down the line. I'm just glad I'm in a whole lot better of a situation than I was a year ago. I have the income to pay my bills, anything extra will be for paying off debt faster and funding our business. I understand marketing from the real estate investors' perspective a lot better so I know which marketing strategies I'll try first this time around that won't cost a lot out of pocket and I've learned it's okay to slow down and ingest the material instead of my usual read and apply methodology. 

I know I won't be making $35,000 a week, a month, or maybe even six months from now, but I am a lot more confident in my ability to actually reach that figure and then some.  

As of right now, I've got goals written down and I'm figuring out my business plan. I've done business plans for products and small services but nothing like real estate so it's brand new to me for some parts. As I work through this all over again, I read over the goals I set for myself a year ago, and if I was as ambitious as I thought I would be, I'd have half of my debt paid off by now. But I've learned it's okay to get knocked down, I knocked myself down but I've learned a lot about investing since then and I know it can only get better from here. 

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading! I do have a question for you. Do you use a planner? If so, what brand of planner do you use? I am in search of one that is entrepreneur-friendly and has the space for a lot of notes. Obviously, I have a lot going on so I need something that has some multipurpose to it. 

If you're like me, new and inexperienced, I'd love to connect and offer each other support. If you have some advice or tips from me, I'd love to connect and pick your brain over your successes and challenges.