All Forum Posts by: Jennie Carolan

@Theresa Harris would love to retire now ;) But I am 25 years old!

Great call on looking for a duplex without an HOA for short term living. Thank you so much!

@Brett McCurdy thank you! Lucky to have people like you and @Elizabeth Goff for easy to understand tax advice. It gets so confusing finding all of this information out!

@Joe Splitrock absolutely have thought of that. We are currently looking.

I meant Vanguard Index fund (not mutual fund) my mistake. Great point, I agree and think you made a  great point not to put it all of our assets. We want to definitely invest in real estate... however, I still feel too inexperienced to execute on a deal so I will be putting in some deep work hours and join in on webinars/attend conferences/ hopefully find a mentor before pulling the trigger. 

Love that your early retirement money is all rental property cash flow. That is our goal too... to have our stocks for after we retire and then have cash flow from real estate each month. I know it will take time and a lot of mistakes... but I am excited to learn and grow throughout the process. If you have any tips to get started in REI or great resources let me know :)

@Rich Lopes meeting with two different realtors on Sunday! It is so crazy how much our mindset has shifted in a short time. Thank you for the numbers and advice.... we definitely want to buy a multi-family unit property.

We don't know anyone closely for OOS so that is good advice. What about if we find a great property management company in an area that has no state income tax, low property taxes, and near a major airport? Would you still be reluctant to invest OOS? 

@Elizabeth Goff so true. At first we were reluctant to sell due to capital gains! Then we found out if we only profit less than $500k and we are married, we don't have to pay the tax! Totally brutal in CA which makes it not really worth it to use as a rental property IMO

@Roger Hefner your reply is my favorite yet! :) We both do like our jobs and have great benefits/pensions. The goal is to make our money work for us now so that we can afford to travel at every opportunity and give our future kids a great life/college. 

@Theresa Harris Rent would be approx $2,200 in the new place which is a lot less than our current housing payment (granted a lot is going into equity).

That is a smart move to buy rental properties in the area that you plan to retire. And agreed with you and @Jenifer Levini... but I think that we could make more if we invest that money now and then hopefully have enough financial freedom later to buy in a similar area.

We definitely want to look into buying some multi-family properties in areas with lower property taxes and a much lower HOA. Thank you so much for your knowledge and help!

@Aubrey H. Totally someone is paying down your debt and you are building equity! However, we think we could make more from mutual funds and buying multi-family properties in other markets without such a high HOA/property tax rate. Glad we have Bigger Pockets from the start to help us on our journey!

@Jonathan W. Thank you for taking the time to reply/help! Yes... approx $6,000 a year in property taxes and another $500 a month for HOA.

Definitely champagne problems and we feel blessed! We just want to make the best financial decisions now to set us up for the future. I think it is smart to move to a different market that does not have such crazy HOA and property taxes.

Agreed on the fact that mutual funds are boring. However, boring isn't bad in our case since we have time on our side. The compound interest on top of the approx 8% a year sounds good to us!

@Jenifer Levini thank you so much for taking the time to help! I really love this community and appreciate your time. 

Michael bought the property approximately 10 years ago when the market was low. It is a condominium, not a single family home. In that way I don't think the property will continue to appreciate 100k. We are in Newport Coast and bought for $550,000. Based on Zillow, we think that it can sell between $750-800,000. 

Also, we are losing money every month on the HOA (approx $500 a month).

It is very hard to sell. If our house was a single family home, I don't think we would sell. But I feel like for a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo, the appreciation of the property can't continue at this rate.