All Forum Posts by: Desiny Smith

Hi @Desiny Smith, welcome to the BP Forum! Are you looking for turn-key properties or something that needs some rehab? 

@Desiny Smith welcome to the forums! I love the "what would you go back and change" question becuase of course everything we go through has purpose to who we are now, but in general when i reflect back on what I could change or tweak it would be that I woudl trust less in the "system" of getting a good engineering job, and relying on promotions etc to make income jumps,  I did a lot of free work as a salaried engineer, and made the companies I worked for huges sums of money on an annual basis from cost savings, and I never saw a lick of that. That's fine that's how it goes, but had i realized what was happening sooner, I'd have spent those earlier years like some of my peers in a tech sales roll with scaleable income.  

Don't get me wrong there a ton's of other little things, but being able to go back to 2012-2013 and start pulling in $150K + a year as a fresh grad with little expenses would have substantially altered the trajectory of my life, but then again, who knows if I every would have found these forums...

other than that most of my regrets are centered around not figuring out "myself" and how I work and interact with people sooner.  that's what has really unlocked the next level of things for me in recent years.  Time spent working on you is most often the most valuable time you can spend.

I don't do commercial properties, but I'd have started earlier and when buying properties, bought more single family homes and when I did buy a condo, buy a higher end one.  With single family homes, you don't have to deal with condo fees and appreciation is better.  With lower end condos, they don't appreciate as quickly.  When I look at how housing prices have changed over a relatively short period of time, I am so glad I bought when I did because I'm not sure I could do what I did 10-15 years ago now.  Also remember rents do go up, so if something has marginal cash flow now, that may not be the same case 5-10 years down the road.

OP.  Start small and make your Big Mistakes Early.

Just like rolling a snowball downhill.  Starts small and then picks up in size and speed.

There is no way to start large.  All of us have to make mistakes and learn.  You don't want to drag others with you.

Step1: Your personal finances. Commercial is totally different than SFH. Your financials, reputation and experience are extremely important. You can't get into the game if you don't have those covered.

Step 2:  Start to build your own cash up.  Recommend you start with a House Hack.

Step 3: While doing the above decide upon your REI track. Depending on your personal situation and technical field, learn from the side or jump in. If you don't have a clear career path, then try to get a job as a property manager if you plan to do MFH.