All Forum Posts by: Walter Fabiszewski

@Darius Ogloza

That’s awesome that you had a family member to learn from. I’m not complaining and I’m grateful that I learned what I did when I did, but I wish I had a family member as a mentor to have taught me at an even younger age.

@Jim K.

As I mentioned above, I inadvertently got into real estate investing by purchasing a duplex is my first home and “house hacking“ to be able to save money for additional purchases. However I really started building equity through real estate on the back of a lot of sweat equity. My dad was a carpenter and I learned a lot from him and my business partner was a contractor so we both build equity by renovating the houses ourselves.

@Account Closed

Isn’t it amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it? I’m sure the sacrifice of trying to save $2000 a month on a $55,000 salary was a challenge, but looking back on it now seems so worth it! 

@John Morgan

Gotta love the liquid courage!

@josephscorese

What made you purchase that first four unit property? Did you just decide on your own? Did you have a friend or family member influence you? Did you read books about real estate investing?

@ dariusogloza

that’s great to hear that your dad came here to pursue the American dream and did it. Did he make any other investments? Did you follow in his footsteps and continue the RE investing? 

I got my start in real estate investing unintentionally when I was about 24 years old. I was a bartender in Connecticut and making very good money. I decided it was time to “become an adult” and buy my first home. I had a very good friend and coworker who strongly suggested that I look at multi family homes so I could live in one and rent out the other unit(s). Although I wasn’t completely shut off to the idea, I had bigger plans for myself and wanted a modest single-family home, with a yard where I could entertain and impress my friends.  After speaking with the real estate broker my friend recommended I decided to look at and eventually purchased a duplex in a decent but not fancy neighborhood. I lived on the second floor and rented the first floor to a couple of college kids. Little did I know what an impact this would have on my life. Not only did one of the tenants become a lifelong friend (25 years and running), but my monthly living expenses were only $200 a month. About six months later when I got a roommate I was actually cash flow positive about $400 a month. This allowed me to save almost all of my income. A short time later when I moved to New Jersey I purchased a small condominium with all of the money that I saved. I rented both sides of the duplex and was supplementing my income nicely. A few other incredible opportunities presented themselves and because I was saving money hand over fist, I was able to take advantage of them. 

Thank you Mindy. I appreciate the information. I logged onto my account through the website and see a lot more information and tools than are on the app.

Congratulations Kevin. Roll with that momentum and keep pushing forward.

First off I would like to send out a huge thank you to BiggerPockets and it’s team for providing such a great forum for investors to gather, network and learn about real estate investing. Having said that, I’m wondering if I’m missing out on a lot that BiggerPockets has to offer. I keep hearing about these different analysis calculators, spreadsheets and other tools while watching bigger pockets YouTube videos. I joined the community and have been using the app on my tablet and phone. However, I don’t see where these tools are. Should I be going onto the website and not using the app to see other functions and features you have to offer?