All Forum Posts by: Ali Dawood

Hey everyone,

I have a discussion topic that I would like some input on. My wife and I are looking to enter the RE investor world as house flippers, but we only want to do it part-time. We're both health professionals and make a decent income, so we're more looking for supplemental income and not really trying to replace it. 

Our question is:

Is it possible to be a successful house flipper part-time?

Due to our day jobs,  we will not be able to oversee the rehab daily unless we go before/after work, or at lunch. In this situation, we will be relying on our contractors heavily to complete the job they were contracted to do. What other options do we have in this situation? 

We currently have about $30K in cash, but aren't planning on starting our journey until early next year to give us time to research the market and get educated on rehabbing. By that time I'm expecting us to have roughly $80-100K in cash. 

We live in and are planning to rehab houses in the Dallas/Ft.Worth (Texas) market. 

Thanks.

@Kevin C. Nope, I don't think you do. I use the same phone number for various, unrelated reasons. For example, I use a generic voice mail recording for random people who call, Craigslist, etc. So that would be kind of like the default voice mail recording.

But I also have a Contact Group specifically for my patients who use the exact same number to call me, but they will hear a different voice mail recording that is specific to my patient list. (you can make a different voice mail recording for each Contact Group) The only downside is that I have to manually add these patients and their phone numbers to the specific Contact Group or else they will hear the default voice mail. 

I hope that made sense.. If not let me know and I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

@Kevin C. 

Hey Kevin, if you log into your gmail account associated with your Google number you should be able record a voicemail message that, I think, will remove that "you are being connected" message. Plus the person calling you won't be able to tell that you're using a Google number. I'm in dental school and am using this for my patients who ask me for my phone number. When I initially tested it out, it seemed to work fine and I don't remember it it saying that message. 

Thanks for sharing everyone. I will be graduating dental school in 6 months and was curious about this particular topic. I've heard about turnkey housed but not about turnkey providers - definitely something I'll be looking into. Joe Kim Did the same turnkey provider help you find all your properties in all 3 states? How difficult do you find it managing the properties in the other states?

Not sure how old this thread is, but I just finished reading The Millionaire Next Door.

The 4-Hour Workweek is next on my list.

Has anyone read, "Stop Acting Rich:...And Start Living Like a Millionaire"?

If all it says is live frugally and don't buy anything expensive, I may hold off on that book for a while. That concept got a little redundant in the previous book.

@Karyn T.

Thanks for the real world experience comments. I didn't really think about the debt affecting so many other aspects of life. I'm mainly concerned with paying it down so I can 1) get a loan for my private office, and 2) begin the initial stages of REI for my future. I appreciate the heads up and will plan accordingly.

Also, we don’t have required residencies like MDs, but we can definitely do them if we want. For us they’re called either a GPR (General Practice Residency) or AEGD (Advanced Education in General Dentistry), and then of course there are specialties (orthodontics, oral surgery, etc). A GPR/AEGD is a paid residency and from I hear, you learn more during that 1 year residency then 3-4 years in private practice. It could benefit us in the long run if we go that route, but only my fiancé is interested in it. I’m more interested in specializing in orthodontics. I know my loans will increase due to interest, but so will starting salary and I would thoroughly enjoy my job. With some ortho programs we can work while in the residency so that could help offset some costs and possibly start paying down some loans along the way. Just a thought, I apply this summer so we’ll see what happens.

And a DB9 is a GREAT choice! :-)

@Jean Paul Valley

No, I do not have a job lined up at this point. Maybe I wrote it wrong in my original post but what I meant to say was that my fiancé and I should be able to make at least $200-300K salary together (so $100-150K each) for the first year, and it should increase from there up to a point to where I know it’ll plateau until we start our own practice, then skies the limit! A salary that high for a first year associate is definitely very high! If you ever find someone paying that much, please let me know! haha

@Jarrett Harris

Wow! Congrats on all the successes in the last 2 years man, especially the new addition to the family (the baby...not the car :-p ) Going from an M35 to a Ford Focus definitely blows, but being able to use that car payment money towards all those other things definitely does make it worth it. Great job!

@Nicole Pettis

lol Yes, I've heard of Dave Ramsey but haven't gone around to reading any of his works yet. What would you recommend I start with that might help with downsizing my student debt? I'm currently halfway through The Millionaire Next Door and am finding that my way of thinking is a mix between a PAW and UAW (only makes sense if you've read the book.. lol) We will definitely make a budget and live frugally for some time, and I agree with you, REI isn't going anywhere. I'm just impatient and want to start yesterday! :-p

Thanks for the kind words and I appreciate the support!

@Ebe Chinweze Thanks for your insight! Like I said earlier, it will be tough not to spend on some toys when I FINALLY start making money instead of paying money, but I'll do my best to keep it under control. If not, my fiance' will make sure I do! I'm the spender, she's the saver. lol Also, my parents have offered to take us in for 2 years after we graduate so we can focus on paying off our loans. They're pretty worried about the amount of debt we'll have. But we'll see how that ends up.

@Andy Robison haha I like you already! An LFA would be awesome, but I was thinking an Aston Martin or Audi R8 to keep it "reasonable". Gotta dream big right? Keep it up!

@Brett Russell I'm sure it'll be hard for me not to expand my expenses to my new income as well, since the most I've ever made is $11/hr before getting into dental school. lol My interest rates are a little higher so if consolidated, I would assume it would be closer to 6%. But if I consolidate, from my understanding, I'm not longer eligible for IBR, which may make our payments more than $3000/month. I'll have to look into my options a little more closely to figure out what works best economically. If all else fails, we can always use 100% of 1 of our salaries to pay loans and live pretty comfortably off the other salary. Doing that will make our payments closer to $8-10K/month getting pretty close to being done with it in 10 years or less.

Oh, and Kyle, the thing you mentioned about the car will be the toughest thing for me! I'm definitely a car guy and am looking forward to owning some luxury sports car, but holding back on that will really put me to the test! haha I have a 2009 Honda Accord coupe right now (undergrad graduation gift from parents) that is paid off. Honda's don't easily falter, so getting another 10 years out of it should be easy…if I can hold off that long :-)

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it.

I'm not fooling myself into thinking paying it all off will be easy. I knew what I was getting myself into when I accepted the offer to join this program. But now as graduation is coming up, the amount of loans I have is starting to hit home.

@Kyle Hipp With ~$75,000/yr in tuition and fees and an additional ~$25,000/yr in student loans for living, its pretty easy to rack up that much student loans. lol Taking on extra shifts is definitely something I'm thinking about. Most dental offices don't go past 5-6 pm, but I know some offices, especially corporate dental, have Saturday hours which I'll have to look into. I can see your point about any RE investment at this time not doing much for me, and what you said here, "I fear you will become the broke guy who should be 10 years away from retirement but just paid off your student loans and now needs to play catch up to get close to retirement", is definitely something I DO NOT want to happen. Thanks for your insight!

@Cal C. I have thought about a part-time job, even searched for a few, but nothing ever panned out. Once I graduate, I don't expect real-world dentistry to be as hectic as dental school. There won't be random assignments or tests/quizzes that I'm constantly studying for so I think I should some more free time. Well, that is until I plan on setting up my own office, then yes, things will be different. But as an associate, it's pretty much go to work, go home. The owner-dentist takes care of everything else. I appreciate the optimism for my RE ambitions and I will educate myself before trying to tackle something too big for me. Maybe I can initiate my RE venture by investing in a duplex and living in one of the units for a couple years. I'll still need a place to live, and what better way than not having to pay rent. The money I save from paying rent, I can put towards paying off loans on top of the required monthly payment. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone? Just an idea I got reading various blog posts and the forums, but any RE venture that I plan for will definitely need to be "passed off" by my BP consultants (all of you) before I jump in! You can teach a lot of things, but you can't teach experience, and that's something I really value from this community.