Trying to be a better investor

[Benjamin Johnson]

Hello All,

My name is Benjamin. I am a traditional buy and hold property investor. My grandma has always had rental homes and my mother always wanted to. They were the first ones to show me how using property as an investment can grow wealth. With that I bought my first home back in 2012. I was able to keep this rented and was making cash flow not putting a lot of work into it. This home was turnkey and newly remodeled. At this time I did not know what the next step was so I just started saving for the down payment again.

In 2016 I bought my second property. I lived in this home for a year and did a little remodeling, mostly just paint and clean up. Started renting this in 2018.

At the end of 2019, literally the second to last day 12/30/2019, closed on a home that unknowingly to me was a BRRRR. The short story is the landlord of the house next to the one I got in 2016 and I got into a bit of a fence war. I ended up buying the house from him. I paid cash for this one and it took me 9 months to get it remodeled and rented.

In 2021 I had a very big health situation get resolved. Not to go into details but it completely changed my outlook on life. I wanted to change somethings and financial freedom became a bigger priority. With this I started looking more into investments property and found BRRRR by David Greene. After reading this book I realized I had done everything but refinance and repeat. I then started listening to the BP podcast and reading some other BP books.

With that in 2022 I refinance my 3rd home as it was the only one without a loan yet. I know this was not the best timing for getting a loan. With getting the home under market value and having the equity growth for 27 months I was still able to get a decent loan and get back 90% of what I invested in the home. This was a big win for me.

I immediately started looking for a new home to purchase cash and add value to. I closed on home 4 in October 2022 and have been remodeling it since then. I am also under contract for a duplex that I will be house hacking, should close in the next week or two.

This brings me to the BP forums. I am looking to connect with some like minded investors in my area. One of the things I struggle with is growing my connections and resources. I have also done most everything myself and have a hard time letting other do something I can, especially if I have to pay them. I know this will not get me to financial freedom. So today I am taking my first step to getting better at this.

I look forward to meeting you all and making some mutual beatifically connections.