Ready to Build My Empire, In NJ with my Wife

[Allen Brouwer]

Hey everyone.. thank you so much for letting me learn from all of you.

Very interested in learning the real estate process and looking to make my first purchase very soon (like before October soon)

Things that I want to do:
- Buy and hold (rental properties)
- Flips
- Out of State Vacation Rentals

I would like to start with the first 2 then work my way to purchasing properties out of state later down the road..

My wife and I are looking to do this together. Currently we have some money ready to go with this, but before we just dump money blindly into one property or another.. we want to educate ourselves first.

Here's some topics I'd like to learn while here:
- Use our money or finance?
- Rent or Flip in our market? How to Decided?
- (my biggest) Learn from someone in the area, a mentor.

Thanks for listening, I look forward to connecting with you all!

-Allen and Lauren

[Ashley St. Gelais]

Hey Allen! Welcome!

Great goals and I love that you are considering which options might work best for you.  I focus mostly on buy and hold real estate, so I might be a bit bias.  We've found flipping to be higher risk and haven't given that a try as of yet.  Flipping can provide you with quick cash if everything goes well and you time the market correctly.

We love using other people's money to increase returns and total appreciation. We finance as much as we can with each of our properties. In fact, we even borrow against some (with HELOC's and cash out refinances) to make the down payment for the next property.

Here are some tips:

1) Always have enough savings for your own rainy day fund.

2) When evaluating deals, be sure to estimate on the high side for repairs and on the low side for sales price or rental values.  (It always helps to have a buffer.)

3) Learn as much as you can about your market before you make any moves.

4) Start researching financing options now, before you find the deal.  Having a financing plan ready to go can be the difference between you losing the deal to someone else who already has their ducks in a row.

And if you want more access to my daily insights, I'd love to have you join my facebook group.  Sign up by visiting: www.realestatefreedom.biz.