Newbie From Spokane, Washington

[Bryanna Mendoza]

My name is Bryanna Pavlish and I'm a 25-year old currently living in Spokane, Washington. Born and raised here, I’m looking to break into the world of real estate investing! I’ve been working for the USPS as a mail processing clerk for the past three years - I handle and organize letters and packages (via methods of machine sorting and hand sorting) for the carrier routes the next morning.

Overall, the post office has treated me well, putting fairly decent checks in my pocket with some pretty sweet benefits to go along with them. A 20-something with no college what-so-ever, I feel fortunate to have secure employment like I do. I’m able to wear bluetooth headphones (where I binge-listen to the BiggerPockets Podcast) during my entire shift. I take advantage of all the overtime opportunities and work, on average, 48-52 hours a week. I never have to battle weather elements because my position is inside a processing and distribution plant. Not a bad gig.

Lately, my job is getting more and more monotonous. I feel like I have so many more attributes I need to put to use and working for "the man" severely restricts the freedom to use them. I want something more. Which doesn't necessarily mean quitting, but maybe just a venture in real estate as a hobby/side job for the time being. Absorbing enough information through podcasts, books (I just finished Brandon Turner’s “The Book On Investing In Real Estate With No And Low Money Down” and it was amazing!), and online forums to gain enough confidence and knowledge for future endeavors in real estate. Eventually I will have a big enough "toolbox" to create an income strong enough to support myself and be my own boss.

I’m happy to be a member of the BiggerPockets community and look forward to meeting other like-minded people in the area.

[Chris Newman]

Welcome @Bryanna Mendoza ! You're definitely on the right track. The traditional wisdom in any business startup is to keep your day job and only quit that when it's bringing in less money than you can make with your "sideline." 

One bit of advice is to keep your mind open to learning about other entry-level real estate investing than the standard single family residence fix-and-flip value-adding strategy that all the late night infomercials tout. 

At best, this is a lot of very hard work. But, the biggest challenge is finding the deals. Small real estate investing in the Puget Sound region is red hot, with hundreds of local players and there are scores of established investors who can simply write a check for the full purchase price, if they like the deal. Seattle is saturated with these folks and I don't even look there.

Successful wholesaling isn't usually a good newbie option, despite the fact that it doesn't require any cash to begin. You do need to know the market, and the game, very well. And, you need to have a network of investors already lined up who are ready to write checks and pay finder's fees. If you don't bring them truly good deals, they'll stop looking at your emails. If it turns out that you have a real talent for finding deals, without the cash to buy them yourself, wholesaling can be a good option. But, most beginners don't.

Your best shot of finding a deal is "driving for dollars," as Brandon terms it, looking for vacant/rundown properties in good neighborhoods with great school systems, then contacting the owners, who may have been considering selling, but not taken any action, yet.

Another key is to pick an area and focus on that, getting to know local values like the back of your hand. Redfin offers a free service that will notify you of new listings as they appear, and let you know when bookmarked "Favorite" properties go Pending, and their eventual sale price. Lots of good info can be found lower on the Redfin listing page with comparable available and sold properties.

I'm in Snohomish county and there are REI deals here outside the cities - I avoid the city of Everett like the plague that it still is. Mountlake Terrace, just north of Shoreline, is a close-in rising star with plenty of WW II housing still in place.

You're not likely to find SFR deals on the MLS, though. The listing agents usually know private investors and let them know first, before the ink on the listing agreement dries. My primary investment target is local farmland, from which unused and transferable residential development rights can be clipped and sold. There's no competition, so I don't have this challenge and do most of my shopping at home off the MLS. I don't even have to physically visit the property.

But, there are other ways to add value to a property, too, that don't necessarily require finding a screaming SFR deal. One option that I like is to find a light-fixer split-level SFR and convert it to a duplex. Typically, this will have a nice Owner's unit on the top floor with the bottom floor being a rental. A typical buyer will be a Baby Boomer with some cash who needs both a place to live and some supplemental income.

In any event, don't get locked into a single RE investment track by simply following crowd. You can also lose big money (and time) at this and you lock in your profit on the buy, not the sell. There are many investing options and "The riches are in the niches."  

Learn all that you can about everything and remember that the profits are all the same color of green. But, some of them are easier to create than others. 

Good luck!