My Chronicles - Success/Failures so far

[Dan Milinazzo]

I have had the thought many times that I should jot down how I got where I am and where I am going so I can look back when I need to and see how far I have come to re-energize me to keep going.  Almost like a journal, or as the post name implies, a Chronicle of my Journey.  If you enjoy it GREAT! let me know.  If it helps you AWESOME! tell me how.  If this does nothing for you, thats fine, I am doing this because I KNOW it will help me. And isn't that why we are all here? To grow and learn? 

I'm going to glaze and skim over some details that got me here, partly because it was a long time ago, and partly because I am not intending for this to be a full biography.  If something interests you reach out. I love this stuff and have tremendous respect for those I have met on BP and would love to fill in any details you are curious about.  

Background: (in my profile) My father owned and operated a roofing and siding business when I was young, and my mother was a bit of an artist with a short career in Interior Design.  I started picking up roof debris and being on the jobsite at a very young age.  Loved lego growing up.  Took a drafting course in Highschool and was encouraged to pursue Architecture (which I did).  I did well and was offered 2 full sized power drafting tables and my very first CAD program (AutoSketch 2.0-Still have it on3.5" floppy!).  Tried to sell spec plans for playhouses, used my Business period in school to build Adirondack chairs in wood shop (Principal was my first customer!) got an A in the class because of it. Sold my first Architectural Rendering job at 15, with the help of my Graphic Artist cousin to a local business that was building a new building.  Went to college for Architectural Engineering.  

2006ish: A college professor decided to throw out the course book and chose to educate his students a little on Business.  I ended up reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad.  Decided I would make a good realtor and took a weekend intensive course at the American Real Estate Academy.  Somehow got my boss at the time to listen to me about investing and got him interested as well.  So we started looking at rehabs during slow times.  I got hooked, and saw that Robert Kiyosaki was going to be in town at "The Learning Annex Real Estate & Wealth Expo" in Boston, MA December 2006. Yes I attended and yes got sucked into a few guru courses.  Got very confused about if becoming a Realtor was a good idea or not.  Fast Forward through a couple thousand dollars in credit card bills (don't worry the guru's taught me how to open a brand new card and max it out on their course! very good lesson learned there). 

2007: Didn't become a realtor. What the heck is happening to the real estate market? However, put an offer in on my first house with a friend and got it accepted.  My friends realtor, so convinced everything was perfect encouraged us and the seller (also his client) to allow us to occupy the property BEFORE CLOSING. Yeah, how do you like them apples.  Turns out some things came to light during the mortgage application that made me very uncomfortable and we had to walk away (my deposit was TOAST).  Now I was broke and my old affordable apartment was re-leased and I had to find alternative housing until I figured out how to save enough to get another place to myself.  Late 2006, back in my own apartment. 

2008: Ok. Paying higher rent made it very difficult to save. So renewed my lease (but on a monthly basis because I was getting out of this situation one way or another). Apparently, going month to month on my lease inciting my property manager to charge a rent premium (well that sucked for someone trying to save up).  Late 2008, I have kicked the tires on a handful of junk houses and decided I needed to find an affordable multi to rehab, rent, and flip. 

2009: Found one. Short sale. Old duplex converted to a single.  I was 3rd in line of the offers (and I was right at asking price). This is January 2009.  About a month later I get a call, #1 and #2 fell through, and my realtor asked "Do you want to renew your offer?" Sure thing!!  So excited...month after month passes.  Again, what the heck is going on with real estate?  I get a call back after the 4th extension. "The sellers have a higher offer and want to pass on another extension unless you beat it". You may be thinking, something doesn't seem right.  You wouldn't be alone I was livid and confused, but I was emotionally invested now.  Yes, I upped my offer, and immediately felt like I had just been extorted.  Still ok though, the house was beat and I knew I would be able to fix it up a bit and hopefully off load it.  Looks like a househack to me (didn't know the term at the time thats for sure.)

2010: finally got a renter, way under market, in the fixed up unit and comfortably living in the other.  The market is still not so good right now.  However, I was able to refi anyway.  No cash, just rate drop.  Not horrible.  Now I need to figure out how to be a landlord!  A few google searches later and a purchase of NOLO/Socrates manual on "Landlording" and on November 19, 2010... What is this BiggerPockets site all about?  Let's sign up and see.

2012: Moved into our first home with my wife. Got the second unit of my duplex rented.  Still not doing great at the "market rate" stuff.  More to come.