All Forum Posts by: Tatum Littleton

 I 100% agree with this! As well as what Madri Koppe mentioned. Just about everyone only talks about and highlights cash flow and if it doesn't cash flow then it's not good... I would not necessarily agree with that because of what is said above. With house hacking you still may pay for some of the payment but not all which is still great and you can save that money. House hacking is a great way to learn to be a homeowner and a property manager all in one. Of course cash flow is great but not paying for all of the housing expense every month is also great. A good way to look at it, Jana!

Welcome to BiggerPockets, glad to have you learning and growing alongside us! Set your goals to be clear and measurable and work hard to reach them. The forums are a great place to learn how to or how not to do something, ask questions and engage, it helps you and others learn. Work hard and have fun!

 Sure, I mean it may lay it out nicely and compare both but I believe it is all relative in different markets at different times. Who's to say what "working hard" is exactly? Just hours worked I don't believe is the only indicator. Being able to explain things to their client? Being creative in finding properties they may be interested in? Being creative in marketing the property? Being able to work with different personalities. I think the list goes on to define and show "hard work".

Yup, I agree with Michael there! There is a lot of value in doing things yourself and learning as you go. My wife and I have been doing that the last couple of years. 
I think you’re in a great position to do that and get your feet wet and utilizing this opportunity to set yourself up well as a young age. I would recommend doing the research on landlord laws in OR and documents needed and how to get that process going for future tenants and doing it the right way, it seems you may have started that. If you haven’t had the conversation with your relative about getting those “unofficial” tenants out, I believe you should do that soon and present your plan how it will be beneficial for both of you and you can begin the process of getting new tenants in. 
So much value in what you’re doing now, keep working hard, reading and learning and reading these forums (it’s totally okay to not take someone’s opinion and use what would be helpful to you, there’s a lot of opinions on here lol!). Good luck!

Thats a fair question, James! To answer, I don’t think there is a definitive answer that one side has to work harder.

As a buyers agent, you need to know what the buyer is interested in and what their needs are. The real work does come in with driving around like you mentioned, maybe being creative and showing properties they may not have thought of, and articulating different ways to offer on a property, just to name a few items.

As a sellers agent, you do have significant work to do by putting up the property and doing open houses and talking with buyers agents giving them information. A lot of other work comes in when presenting offers and again articulating and helping the seller negotiate, again, only a few things that have to be done.

I think both need a great deal of people skills being able to deal with multiple different people with multiple different desires in the transaction and being able to balance all of that is hard work in of itself. Those are just a few points and I know many others have more thoughts as well! So, again, in my opinion, I don’t think there’s one right answer but am interested in hearing from others on what they have worked through as a buyer/seller agent.

Hey Anastasia! Good on you for starting and thinking about this now rather than later... honestly I wish I did that, BUT all of our journeys are different and unique! As already mentioned, house hack would probably be the smartest and easiest way to start, you get to learn to be a landlord and homeowner all at the same time. 

My biggest piece of advice would be to take it slow and learn to evaluate different options and strategies and hear different opinions (you don't have to take them all and use them, see what works for you... there are a lot of them on these forums LOL) as soon as you can. Real estate is a marathon and things change, be able to adapt. While you're working to your 2025 goal, if you can, work and put your head down and save as much money as you can into a high-yield savings account and just build that up, be frugal, you can sacrifice for a little while. Also, find a loan officer who understands your age and life stage and who will truly put your interests first and help you get a financial strategy that will set you up for success. 

I hope that wasn't too much but was helpful! We're all still learning, keep working hard!

Hey Clayton, great to have another local investor! I was born and raised in Bryan but live in Austin now, however, my wife and I focus on investing in the BCS area. 

Keep learning and going after what interests you and your family. Go after your "why" and what will work for your family, remember this is not a one size fits all journey, everyone's looks different. If you ever want to talk about questions you have or investing in general I would be happy to discuss!

Keep up the good work!

I get these questions and don't mind them being asked. However, not all agents (myself included) were agents during the time you are referring to so no, we all couldn't make sales and listings like others did. Also, renting is not the worst thing in the world as it is often alluded to in these forums (not saying you are saying that, it is just the sentiment I get throughout posts) there absolutely is a time and place to rent just as for purchasing property and everyone is in a different space. 

I think it needs to be said that not all agents are in a place to purchase or be full-time, I speak from experience, some may get to the point that they need to go full time for various reasons or stay part time for different ones. There are an infinite amount of life stages agents can be in and no one situation is the same nor can be generalized. And yes, there are a lot of agents, however I think it weeds itself out in times like these that see who can make it or not or can adapt. 

I 100% agree with house hacking with other realtors, could be pretty neat, like a mastermind group together all the time, and learn from each other's successes and failures. BUT again, some may not be in a situation where they can house hack, so you just never know.

All I am trying to say is there are so many different situations people are in and as I have said on the forums before that if you rent instead of buy... that's fine! and can be great for you where you are in life and hopefully purchase in the future. 

Also, I don't want this to come off as attacking or anything like that, just want to bring up a different point of view from someone who didn't necessarily struggle to pay rent but may understand those who answered the survey.

Along the lines of inspector or appraiser, you could get your real estate license, which will help you understand the market more and help with investing in future properties. It will also allow you to interact with more people within real estate as a whole. However, I understand the hesitation.

Depending on where you are, you could substitute teach during the day and bartend in the evening to make up a bit. In my experience with substitute teaching, I mainly did high school, and most of the time the teacher leaves work and you would just give it to the students to do and you can just research deals and analyze properties while you substitute. I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to start, everywhere in the country needs substitutes. 

I 1000000% agree with that, cash flow is great but not the be all end all but house hacking can be a great way to get going and become comfortable and familiar with REI in general. Glad you are taking this long term approach and setting yourself up for the future.