Sharing my rookie real estate journey

[Matsa Sundara]

Welcome to my real estate journey! I  am a single mom have a full time job as a plan builder for the health  Insurance industry I was introduced to real estate investing by my dad who had asked me to help renovate his Philadelphia rental.  He had rented through section 8 for over 10 years and the city never raised his rents?! So we decided it needed major updating to attract more renters. I was super excited to jump in since HGTV prepared me for this right?! We started our demo and design and I quickly realized that creating a space for a family to call home was super fun and rewarding! The end result was better than we imagined! We got new renters and increased our monthly rents by over $300!

This gave me the boost and nudge I needed to to ahead and find another rental! I started listening to several people on YouTube and Bigger Pockets while attending my local Real Estate meet-ups. I learned so much from all these FREE resources! Which gave me the tools to figure out our next move. Since my father owned the Philly rental free and clear we did a cash out refinance- thank you David Greene for the BRRRR method! We took the cash out to put down on another property and had some money left over for renovations!

This 2nd rental was in the suburbs of Philly I found this home through the MLS as a foreclosure so I got it for a good deal! While attending my local REI meet up I also meant my private lender who funded my whole deal! I was blown away that someone whom I had just gotten to know for a short amount of time believed in me and was willing to take a chance on helping me achieve my goal! Frank Yang is awesome, he generally wants to help people.

As a fairly new investor I made my share of mistakes such as getting scammed by a phony private lender who asked for money up front and gave nothing in return secondly finding a good contractor that actually shows up was another huge task! Lessons learned for sure! If I did not make a choice to take the chance to make a change in my life I would not be on my road to financial freedom through real estate. 

Thanks to my Dad, my partner Keith and my mastermind group for the support!  I hope to inspire others to make the mental switch, to think positive, if you believe the mind and body will follow.

[David Haynes]

@Matsa Sundara What an inspiring story! Thanks for sharing! I’m investing in the Philly area as well. I love hearing these success stories. And as always, the story’s not over. Keep it going strong!