My Journey Starts Here... [Greater Boston, MA]

[Christopher Hui]

Hey everyone!

My name is Chris and I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to join such a vibrant and helpful community. My girlfriend and I are both fully employed and are looking to start our journey for real estate investing. 

GOAL: Using 25-50k, Buy&Hold in North-West MA area.

Some background on us and how I arrived here... Both of us are first generation Americans to attend college and we were both brought up with the mindset that we needed 9-5 jobs. However, sometime in the past year, I realized that I do not want to do this for the rest of my life. My mom (immigrant) worked a hard labor job and eventually started her own business (99c store). However, it took her 30 years to get there, but it is pretty profitable due to her hardwork. 

My belief is that the American Dream goes something like this...

• Work a job and save money (23-50)
• Quit your job to finally do something you love with the money you saved(50-65)
• Retire (65)

But I wonder, why start so late? I have the money, and my family is just sitting on capital. I explained to my family several months ago that I wanted to invest in real estate using the 25k that I had saved up. My mom asked me how I would do it. I told her I didn't know, but I would be able to do it. My mom said, "If you figure out how to be successful, I'll give you 50k each for me, your father, and your brother."

So for the past few months, I've been flip-flopping, doubting myself, fearing the failure, weighing the pros and cons. Until one day last week, I found BiggerPockets. There is a plethora of information here waiting to be mined and absorbed! I gained confidence and laid out my plan.

1. Education - I will listen to every single podcast from 1-194. I listen while I'm driving to work, working out, playing video games, on the toilet, before I go to sleep, eating breakfast, cooking dinner, etc. I need to learn the terms, buy some books, obtain my real estate license. There's just so much to do before I can continue.
2. Network - One of the most difficult things for me personally to do. My social anxiety makes going to real estate clubs and meets close to impossible. However, it's important to build these connections, so emailing real estate brokers, contractors, property managers and other investors will have to do for now. Plus, BiggerPockets allows me to hide behind my keyboard and still be social!
3. Research - Find the right market and research. I firmly believe that a strong foundation will ultimately lead to success.
4. Execute - I know that this is going to be extremely challenging. I've heard many stories on the podcast already about how difficult pulling the trigger is on the first buy. But I guess be cautious is better than being trigger-happy.

Well, I don't expect anyone to have read through this essay, but this is more for me to look back on one day hopefully. I want to be able to document my path step by step so that I can follow what I did incorrectly and what I did right. Hopefully there may be some young entrepreneur in the future who will read my post and know that there is actually a chance for them too!

Thanks for reading!