2017 "Making Steps Towards Our Goals"

[Donnie Martens]

Hey BP, 

I wanted to update everyone on my current life-stage and hope to provide some encouragement to others out there. 

My wife and I along with our 5 children have been living the American Dream. We bought out first house in 2013. It is a cute 3/2/1700 sq ft on ~2 acres in Ochelata Oklahoma. I thought I had a steady job at one of the oil and gas companies in Bartlesville, OK. However with the recent turmoil in the oil and gas industry, I quickly found out that my job is no longer a safe and secure job. I've been blessed to survive the multiple layoff rounds however, I realized I need to alter my course. I've been on BP for about a year now, reading, studying, and learning all I could about RE. I had high hopes to invest in a "Buy & Hold" then continually grow from there. After one date night with my wife in which we discussed our Goals, I realized that a Flip would probably be the best first step. So after running numbers, doing walk throughs with some contractors, I never felt peace about pulling the trigger. This is mainly because of my personal numbers. I want to be transparent to hopefully encourage others to reevaluate "everything" before stepping into RE. 

Take Home Pay - ~$4000 per month

Tithe - ~$500 (this is very important and non negotiable)

Current Mortgage - ~$1100 per month ($196,000 @ 3% VA Loan)

Utilities -  ~$350 (Natural Gas, Water, Electricity)

Credit Card Debt - ~$600 in payments ($25000 total)

Groceries - ~$600 - $700 

Car Fuel - ~$300

Bills -  ~$180 (Cell Phone, Internet, Netflix)

This leaves ~$250 - $300 per month for savings/Dr. Bills/ anything else that pops up!

After reevaluating our situation we've decided that moving into a fixer upper / live in flip in Owasso or Collinsville would probably be the best next move. The numbers that we are hoping to achieve would be 

Purchase Price - <$150,000 (save approx. $250 - $300 per month in mortgage payments)

Utilities - ~$175 (currently we are leaving in the country & it has expensive water and gas) (Save ~$175 per month)

This would increase our savings goal. We could elect to pay off Credit Card Debt Faster. 

Take advantage of potential appreciation from the better location. 

We are praying that this works out because we are pulling the trigger on it!

Thanks for all the help and guidance!

I hope your 2017 is off to an amazing start. If you haven't done your first deal yet, like me; I'd encourage you to look at the numbers. Sell your current home and buy a fixer upper!

-Donnie