Vallejo, CA - SFR with added Income Suite (ADU)

[Torre Samonek]

Hello everyone,

I'm using this platform to document our progress on our latest(and only) acquisition. Located in Vallejo, CA It's an SFR built-in 1941 & has a finished basement that we will convert into an income-producing unit. "house hack"

We used the David Greene Team for the purchase. David Greene & Kyle Renke (I cant @ them for some reason)were great at getting properties under contract. We had one house under contract before but didn't do the deal because of the amount of work needed. That sucked because it was in my ideal location(Oakland near Laurel) for my ideal price(sub 500k, smh I know), a real win actually.  Probably still should have gotten that first house, but that's a story about mindset for a different day.

We (wife @Brittany Bento-Tibbs & I) started our investing journey in 2018 with podcasts & books. We really stepped it up, when we went to the 2020 SF Bay Summit. I knew at that time, I had to get more serious and make a purchase.  My main constraint was capital, I didn't have much. But, it's funny how quickly you can find cash when you need it!  Took money from my Union vacation fund account(in the Carpenters Union we don't get vacation days, we get a few bucks per hour that distributes once a year).  Took a few bucks from a 401k account, I found out you can lend yourself money through your 401k, you have to pay yourself back 5% interest, so you can say I'm a bit of a private money lender. 

We met our lender through The David Green Team, Isaac @baycapital. We went with a conventional first-time buyer at 5%, still carry a PMI. Locked in a rate at 3.75%, which was ok at the time, but seems like a crazy high rate now. (Yes I'm trying to re-fi). The purchase price was 500K, got 5k back at closing, and only brung 20K + closing cost to close. PITI is $3053, which sucks because we were renting at $2100, but of course, we didn't own anything and had to ask permission to get my daughter a puppy, LL said no pets by the way. We now have 2 pitbull puppies, the joys of ownership.

About me, I'm a Union Carpenter by trade, so I know my way around a job site and can use a few tools. And luckily (read tremendous hard work) for me I made my to a construction Superintendent, meaning I manage $M construction sites from start to finish, including scheduling & dealing with AHJ(inspectors). But, that doesn't mean I had the correct mindset for investing & managing my own stuff, a bit of mental blockage there. In fact, I did not & still don't but, I'm working on that daily.

We moved in back in June.  It took until the end of October for me to take action, analysis paralysis of a different kind. Overthinking, needing a perfect plan & then ultimately a bit of shame for not living up to his ideal version of myself.

Tip: don't take yourself that seriously, you're going to make mistakes. 

This is the point where my construction diary begins, in late October. 

Pics and more posts to come, hopefully, assuming there is an audience for my investing story.

We've actually made a bit of progress & I'd be excited to share it with anyone who is interested.

Take care & take action. Everything else will follow.

-Torre