Newbie from Chicago, IL

[Kevin Tornes]

Hello BiggerPockets!

My name is Kevin Tornes. I was born in beautiful Colorado Springs, CO, but moved when I was very young because my father was in the Navy at the time. My family moved across the US over the next 10 years to Edmond, Oklahoma (on three separate occasions), Montgomery, Alabama, Memphis, Tennessee and Norfolk, Virginia. Finally, we made our way back to Colorado for our final family move in 2004. My next 10 years were spent in Colorado until I moved to Midland, TX after graduating from Colorado School of Mines near Denver, CO. In Midland, I was working as a Field Engineer for Schlumberger performing hydraulic fracturing jobs throughout West Texas and New Mexico. I spent a year and a half in Midland before deciding to move on to pursue a different career opportunity with GE in Chicago, IL where I currently live.

As I mentioned earlier, my father was in the Navy and was a believer in purchasing houses every time we moved so they could be rented out once we left. He has been in the buy and hold business for some time now and it was a major reason he was able to retire earlier than most. He is the reason I first developed interest in the Real Estate game.

As for how I got connected with BiggerPockets, I read Brandon Turner's "The Book on Rental Property Investing" and the site was mentioned in there. I'm very excited to use this as a resource to help build my real estate knowledge base as well as a go to when I have questions or concerns.

I am a HUGE baseball fan. My favorite team is the Colorado Rockies. 2017 is our year! I am also an avid skier and enjoy getting outside and traveling with my girlfriend, Taber.

Thanks for reading this summary. Feel free to reach out! 

Kevin

[Michael Lee]

Hello and welcome to BP!  Your dad was smart to do what he did with those houses.  You need to know that life has changed and we have to make it another way because what use to work is different now.  I have learned that today is different than yesterday and education is really important.  Your father may have been lucky yesterday and enjoyed his success because of the cyclicisty that is definitely involved with real estate. I cannot tell you anything about the future but make most of your present time one of the present and the potential of the future is yet it is potentially just a guess so be careful of what you do and not sold on anything emotionally by a guru.

One of the most important things you should do is to know your prospective education that is into teaching you something and not into selling you something that turns out to be a waste.  Make your education is on learning financial knowledge and is close to what you do.  Those things will help you be dominating in your real estate niche and your market area.  I have read more than once that mistakes and fear are pretty normal.  Learn from your mistakes and turn any fear into a positive thing.  Just remember that your mind can be used as a benefit and you control it.

I know I have been pushing my opinion.  I am 60 years old right now and I appreciate what you have been involved in.  I found BP about 18 months ago while recovering medically.  If not "injured" I would probably never found this place and have been learning so much and knowing that I was not prepared for retirement.  I still have not made up my mind on what I am going to do for a living.  Eventhough I am still recovering and learning to walk again I have not given up.  I am lucky that I was married to a woman and she has been saving money for about 25 years.  Because of that I am not over stressed about being a contributor to my family.  We have a daughter who is in her 3rd year at the University of Arkansas.  Since my wife is a compuer programmer and makes a decent salary and has the financial ability to take care of all of us without going into debt.

There are several things you ought to consider doing before you start investing and after you have selected your niche and market area. One of those things is to form some type of corporation or a LLC. That should keep you personally out of any legal problems caused by your business. You might have to get your financing figured out so you can get a loan letter that states the average time it takes to close a loan and the maximum amount you qualified for. A copy of that letter can be included in your offers and give the seller a comfort factor that you could close. You might have to hire an attorney and/or a CPA to advise you the best way to go with incorporation.

Another thing you should consider doing is to make an office location that is convient and has minimal distractions.  You can locate that office in your home just be able to close it off and have minimal personal distractions for you to be involved in.  Always remember to do a math analysis and try to look at the prospective property before you make an offer or at least have a clause that allows you the time (about 10 to 15 days) to make a detailed inspection of the subject property in the sales contract and possibly back out of the deal without a penalty that does not hurt you too much. A good primary Team could help you solve problems.

Primary Team members are typically an Attorney, realestate Agent or a Broker, a CPA (or an accountant that knows everything), Inspectors, General Contractors, and Handymen.  Some of them can even help you decide if a property is worth buying.  Preparation of your potentiality property is one of the keys to your answer.  Do not try to do everything yourself.  Do not cut any corners to make a property look better on paper.  When just starting, do what is average for that neighberhood.  Be patient and do not get overwhelmed.  Do not let anything that fails to make you quit.  Hope that your positives are more in quantity than your negatives.  Track everything your company does on paper and review it regularly and by doing that will ultimately help you reduce your expenses and increase your income.  Do not assume that any professional knows more than you do.

Good luck to you!