biggest learning experience?

[Daniel Root]

Im a real estate agent based out of Indianapolis IN. I'm 20 years old and still in college so I've been spending the last few years soaking up as much  real estate knowledge as possible. Recently I worked with a very intelligent and successful investor who taught me so much. This made me realize I didn't know as much as thought I did. Even after reading it a billion times it made me understand nothing can surpass experience. 

I want to hear some of the biggest lessons you've learned. Whether it be a lesson learned hard or a something a mentor taught you. Plan on doing my first BRRR this summer, so any advise helps!

[Ryan Ingram]

Hey @Daniel Root

More power to you man. Congrats on being on here, open to learning, and already looking to better your life. 

20 is a great age to start and real estate is a great thing to start. 

If you have your 40 year goggles on, it is super hard to go wrong with real estate. You almost have to be grossly negligent to screw up over the 40 year time span. 

Indiana's prices are very similar to here...you can find a handful of "mom & pop" investors or people that stumbled upon investing by keeping the first home they purchased...and the second home...and the third home...and they did very well for themselves. They most likely won't know a fraction of the information that is on this site. But they did it, and they did it just fine. 

I'm 28...I purchased my first home at 23 and accidentally house hacked...it was a really nice SFH in the Raleigh/Durham area. The only reason I bought it is because my roommate at the time and I kept getting our rent jacked up by the apartment complex. If we stayed, our rent would have been $1,300 per month...a mortgage would have been $900. Asked him if I bought a house, would he pay half the mortgage...he said sure.

Sold that and captured the equity from appreciation (not on purpose, never read a single real estate book) and bought 17 acres and built a house with my wife at 25. 

Then we had a kid...and realized that we built our lifestyle in a manner which did not allow my wife to be a stay at home Mom...I didn't make enough money to support that.

I've always been frugal...and I read David Bach's "Automatic Millionaire" at an early age. I got into law enforcement at 20. Since I started, I saved half of my paycheck. I never gave myself a pay raise...each time I got a raise, I increased my contributions to my retirement accounts equal to the amount of the raise.

I thought I was a rockstar because no one else around me was doing anything close to that. 

Now I couldn't provide the lifestyle that my family wanted. My manhood was on the line.

On a call one night, I met a successful businessman. Gorgeous home, someone tried to break in (this businessman had a gun and done run him off though). He asked me tons of questions about neighborhoods, where I would let my family live, and where I wouldn't. He became a great friend of mine. More about him later.

I stopped doing anything remotely related to law enforcement while working and started reading one book per shift. 

All these books taught me that I needed to escape the time for money trap. 

I took an insurance job in Ohio that was 100% commission based. We picked Ohio because you can't beat the midwest cost of living....and my wife had some family in the area...she didn't want to move to a completely new place.

We sold the house we just built for $60,000 more than we built it for...we accidentally created a value by doing the legwork of clearing acreage, installing septic, and all the other things. Keep in mind, I was winging it...I didn't know anything, never read a real estate book...I just knew I wanted a house with enough land to walk out of the house and fire my weapons first thing in the morning. 

For the first 6 months of the commission only job, my wife still had to work. She didn't want to quit her job as an assistant principal until the end of the school year. I commuted to Ohio each week and came home on the weekends. I had tons of windshield time. 

That businessman called me...wanted to know if I'd let my family live in a certain area. He then invited me to go look at it with him. He was transparent and told me all about how much he would buy this for, how much work it needed, and how much he could rent it out for. 

Then he took me to another property. A commercial property...told me how he used the banks money, how much he spent, how much it rents for, and how little he has to do with it each month. 

Then another property, this was an apartment complex. He told me how much it rents for, and how much he paid for it, and how much the mortgage is. 

Then another property. 

But...I read Automatic Millionaire...I know the real secret is in the stock market. 

He didn't have anything in the stock market...just in real places. 

During my drives, I needed to know more about this. I stumbled across the BiggerPockets podcast. Which led to Rich Dad Poor Dad...which led to over 100 other books. I became a sponge...relearning everything...completely discarding what I thought I knew. 

In August of 2017, my wife and I purchased our first duplex in cash. $35,000. It rents for $1100 per month. Cash flows real pretty. 

Then we did it again. This time we got a single family home...$28,000 and needed no work. $7,200 down and a $112 mortgage. $770 per month in rent plus pet fees. 

Then we did it again.

And again.

And again.

We are up to around 40 properties. 

I still don't know what I'm doing. But you don't have to. 

If you stay close to people like the guy you just worked with and learned from, if you regularly check in on this website, regularly fill your brain with good info (and there is no shortage) you'll be just fine. 

It is like bowling with bumper guards. This website, the peers, the mentors, they are your bumper guards. Sure, if you throw the ball hard enough at the guard...you can get it to go into the other lane...but that is on you. The guards tried to help, you didn't listen. That falls into the grossly negligent part I was speaking of. 

You're already on here...you're already trying to learn...I have a sneaky suspicion that being negligent isn't your MO. 

Feel free to connect with me. I'm more than happy to share with you whatever I know, and attempt to answer any question you may have. 

Check in on this site weekly...and keep getting advice...at your age, you're set.