All Forum Posts by: Pete Perez

@Ryan Drowne

I am also a big fan of house hacking. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/519/topics/30...

Here is a link to a pretty great house hacking forum. Lots of good back and forth and reasoning for which people would and would not want to house hack. I personally plan on doing it as a way to get started. But for me the benefits our weigh the risks and draw backs. Plus its a great way to get your feet wet as a landlord. The more experience we have with that the better. Best of luck and don't hesitate to reach out or bounce ideas off each other. The forums are always a good place to get feedback as you probably know by now.

@Aaron Xie

I think most people in California that were previously renting, or living with their parents are more interested in having a beautiful home, compared to having land that can be expanded on. 

Investors may like the idea of expansion, but the end buyers like completed homes that don't require much work. At least this is what I have gotten from reading forums and updates from Car.org 

@Jalen Carethers

Following this thread, please keep us updated on the results. Do you use a CRM to track your contact with potential sellers? How do you measure the source of your leads? 

Or will you just cross reference the names contacting you from the list you generated yourself? 

Great back and forth 

@Account Closed  

@Jim Ehlinger 

Seems like two successful investors with differing opinions. How does the saying go? More than one way to skin a cat? 

Hi @Timothy Lon,

I personally prefer the idea of house hacking. I think its a more effective use of funds. If you purchase a multi unit rather than use more of your own funds to pay down the loan, you're using other people's money to do it. 

I live in CA, so I obviously don't know your area, but in general I like the idea of loan pay down with OPM and save, and or reinvest my own money. 

Best of luck,

Pete

@Robert Butler

I will look under the blogs as well. Thanks buddy. 

Hello BP!

As I am moving along in my education on RE I am starting to see a major need to track local market performance. I want to track monthly data such as: Foreclosure sales, Existing Homes Sales, New Home Building Permits, and Mortgage Loan Defaults. I am sure most of you are aware of the method I am referring to. I don't know where the source of the data would come from though?

I know car.org has nice historical data sets for home prices, but that isn't necessarily what I am looking for. They also have year over year percent changes, which is ultimately what I'd like to calculate myself. Does anyone know of any source, or paid service that I can subscribe to so I can track this data monthly? 

Thanks in advance,

Pete

I tried to use Mint for a while but didn't like it. I think the principal of tracking expenses and categorizing them is a must. For me it seemed like there was too much in the "other" category for spending and I couldn't conceptualize what it actually was.

I switched to my own Excel spreadsheet that I made. It took me maybe an hour to setup but its got everything I need with respect to my personal finances. I know a lot of people don't like using excel for personal finance because the data entry can be tedious, but I find that it really only takes about 5 minutes per day for me to enter my purchases in and its a habit I've created for myself. It has become my "One Thing". 

This is mainly what I look at. I like to make projections for my self a few months in advance, and plan out my expenses and debt services. This way if I am in a particular month I don't need to question what amount do I need to contribute what what debt service? The payment plan I laid out for myself is already there in the projected section for me. 

This is what is currently working for me. I imagine that as finances get more complicated in the future I will graduate to a better method, but for now this works great for me.

@Alex Nguyen

I think @Scott Trench 's recommendations are spot on. Those books will help you shape your personal finance goals as well as your investment goals. Also like Scott said, the opinion I will share with you may differ from another person's opinion and I respect that. This is just an example of how I like to track my finances.

To echo @Damian LoBasso 's point setting up your own budget sheet in excel is pretty basic, but makes a world of difference. I am going to share a post I made on another personal finance thread below.

I like to see all of the money I spend every month as a line item in a single sheet so that the information is consolidated. For me the first thing I needed to change was my spending habits, and control and understand exactly where every dollar I spent went. If I can't control my personal finances I can't reasonably expect to become a successful investor.

What I did (and do still currently) is I make projections for my upcoming monthly expenses, and actively track all of my purchases. In separate tabs I log every single purchase I make by category and dollar amount on a monthly basis. This only takes on average 5 minutes per day. I also track and project my Debt Service payments. The reason I like doing this instead of using a service like Mint is that instead of uploading my purchases at the end of the month and viewing how I did, this gives me a real time view in the middle of the month and I am personally entering the data, so I know the details more intimately.

So in months like January of this year and April of this year I can see where I was close to, or under budget and months like March where I had unforeseen expenses that came up. For me this is nice, because it clearly lays out my payment plans for my various debt sources (I had consolidated my credit cards and bought my fiance an engagement ring), so I never need to question "How much should I pay this month?" It is already there for me. And If I am doing well in terms of my spending, I can afford to over pay and try to pay it off early.

I am also tracking how much per month I can save for a MFR purchase I plan to make in the near future to house hack. You can add whatever features you like. Its just a simple excel spreadsheet.

The Result:

As you can see I paid off the Ring debt service on time, and the consolidated loan amount early. Its been really a really huge mental shift for me in terms of understanding my personal finances, although in reality its just a slight change in behavior. Now I view everything in terms of line items in excel.

Hopefully this helps anyone in a position similar to ours.

Best of luck,

Pete

@Derrick Camber

Hi Derrick,

I am also in the beginning stages of RE and was recently in the exact same position you were in terms of credit card debt, student loans, etc. I'd like to offer what I did and you can feel free to tell me to kick rocks if you'd like. 

For me the first thing I needed to change was my spending habits, and control and understand exactly where every dollar I spent went. If I can't control my personal finances I can't reasonably expect to become a successful investor.

What I did (and do still currently) is I make projections for my upcoming monthly expenses, and actively track all of my purchases. In separate tabs I log every single purchase I make by category and dollar amount on a monthly basis. This only takes on average 5 minutes per day. I also track and project my Debt Service payments. The reason I like doing this instead of using a service like Mint is that instead of uploading my purchases at the end of the month and viewing how I did, this gives me a real time view in the middle of the month and I am personally entering the data, so I know the details more intimately. 

So in months like January of this year and April of this year I can see where I was close to, or under budget and months like March where I had unforeseen expenses that came up. For me this is nice, because it clearly lays out my payment plans for my various debt sources (I had consolidated my credit cards and bought my fiance an engagement ring), so I never need to question "How much should I pay this month?" It is already there for me. And If I am doing well in terms of my spending, I can afford to over pay and try to pay it off early. 

I am also tracking how much per month I can save for a MFR purchase I plan to make in the near future to house hack. You can add whatever features you like. Its just a simple excel spreadsheet.

The Result:

As you can see I paid off the Ring debt service on time, and the consolidated loan amount early. Its been really a really huge mental shift for me in terms of understanding my personal finances, although in reality its just a slight change in behavior. Now I view everything in terms of line items in excel. 

Hopefully this helps anyone in a position similar to ours. 

Best of luck,

Pete