All Forum Posts by: Olivia G Gonzalez

@Bill B. Thanks for your input Bill! Before I even knew what house hacking was, it was my goal to find a place with an unfinished basement I could renovate and rent out. However, where I live is very expensive and last year when I was looking to buy, I ended up not finding anything in my budget except the home I bought which is a two bedroom towhhome. My mortage ok this 390k home is about 2k a month and that's after having put down 20% on it. Renting out a room is not a possibility :( in addition, I didn't know I was going to come into some extra money this year and real estate investing was not something I thought I had enough capital at the time to get into any time soon. I ended up doing a $35,000ish renovation on the townhome, purely cosmetical. I know I will never get this money back when I sell but at the time I thought this was my forever (or at least 20 year home) and I wanted to make it cozy and beautiful (all my family are interior designers so naturally this was my path lol). Anyways, I will be in this home for at least 10 more years.  

Ps I love your dating story! My best friend who is helping me with this was a romantic partner for many years. We almost got married but decided to stay best friends instead. We actually met because he was house hacking and I rented one of the rooms! Thanks to that, I now have a mentor through this investing thing and actually he is currently working on a flip with money I lent him (so I guess I'm technically in the biz already as a small private lender!)

@Jared Smith yup, that's what I hear and it makes sense. I am looking to stop working weekends in the next year and hopefully go from 40 hr workweeks to 32 hours in 5ish years. My friend is able to cash flow about 800 from a duplex deal but I realize incredible cash flow deals like that are few and far between with the current conditions. 

I would say that's a good sign as long as they are willing to do what it takes to get the job done by the timeline which they said they would :)

Contractors are some of the most stressed out, overworked individuals out there and due to the nature of the job, they can often fall behind on projects. I have found that the best and most reliable contractors have strong boundaries and good work-life balance. If this contractor has found a way to not work weekends without getting behind on projects, he is likely very experienced and professional. You don't want a contractor that says yes to every job and works 7 days a week because that likely means they have poor time management skills. 
My opinion is based on having dated a contractor for many years and having hired several others for different jobs :) good luck!

Hello everyone, I am hoping for some  insight!

I decided not too long ago that the best way for me to build wealth for myself and my son is through real estate. I am a single mother and have been working overtime + weekends for the last 6 years. I am over it and eager to find a way to make my transactional job a 32 hr/ wk ordeal so I can balance life, work and being a parent. For this to happen, I would need to acquire about 2k a month in cash flow after taxes (hoping to do it using BRRRR).

My grandparents (who live in Spain) acquired financial freedom through about 12 buy and hold properties and it always left an impression on me.

My best friend who lives in the same city as me is a general contractor and has done 7 BRRRRs and 1 flip in the last 4 years. He did well on all of them and is willing to show me the ropes and walk alongside me each step of the way, including doing my rehabs and value-adds. 

I have about 150k of cash capital to invest.

My concern is an embarrassing one: I am a mental health therapist by trade. I could absorb social sciences like a sponge from a very young age. Math however, has never made any sense to me at all. I just read "Start with Strategy" by Dave Meyer and I would say that the concepts make sense for the most part but things don't "click" in my brain like they do for psychology. When I read these forums and listen to the BP podcast, I never understand things 100% and sometimes I understand exactly 0%

I am tenacious, cautious, ambitious and willing to learn. The BP deal analysis calculators are a life savior, as well as having a friend already seasoned in BRRRRs. However, there's a part of me that wonders whether it's wise to enter this real estate gig when my brain just doesn't grasp math or real estate concepts very well. Is this something that will eventually make sense to me after I've gained some experience? 

Thanks!!

To everyone mentioning cars, my home is always immaculate-like ocd level immaculate. However, my car is a 20 year old piece of junk and always messy. I've always been a perfect tenant. Never paid late, never damaged anything. Just ask the person straight up how they rate themselves in terms of looking after a home and what they say and the nonverbal cues will likely tell you what you need to know :)