From Acting to Banking, and Dreaming of Financial Freedom

[Andrew UMphrey]

Well, for starters my name is Andrew Umphrey and I started listening to Podcasts about a year ago when I stumbled upon Clint Salter’s Dance Studio Owner Network Podcast, which has taught me a lot about my wife’s (Erin Umphrey) and my current endeavor/vision of our Performing Art’s Studio named Artists in Motion locates in Schuylkill Haven, PA. About a month ago I was searching for building wealth and saw a Podcast channel by Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and I listened to a couple shows. The name immediately brought me back to the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book I read back when I was in college about 10 years ago. What it said in that book really made sense to me but at the time I thought there was no way I could do anything about it to start changing my financial life while I was in college so I put it aside amid 22+ credit semesters of college and working part-time jobs, while also always being rehearsal for a play or musical as a theater major. Then on to grad school and moving off campus and into a couple different rental homes, where I was the renter. I had this thought that I should buy a house but find something like a duplex that I could rent out part of it, which I probably got the idea from one of my landlords that I rented their basement in my finals years in undergrad. A month ago, I was kind of tired of listening to the Rich Dad, Poor Dad episodes after only a few and searched real estate investing. I found dozens and dozens of Podcasts, I listened to a few and then found Bigger Pockets, which I related to best for some reason. I think it had to do with it sounding like real guys like myself, who seem to be relatively younger like myself, and there is a mixture of humor among a wealth of really great information! So, I have been listening religiously for about a month now, I’m caught up to about 2014 and have my playlist full of episodes that sound like they really pertain to me. Fast forward some years, and I currently work at Wells Fargo full-time as the Branch Manager and then by night and on weekends my wife and I own our own performing arts studio that I mentioned before. We have just started our 4th Season in business and we currently teach and inspire about 250 students, although over the first three years up to this point we have had the pleasure of working with over 500 students during that time frame. So, you can imagine that it is a little crazy for us. My ultimate goal with getting into real estate investing is that Erin and I are building toward more freedom, and the wealth required to live the life we want to live now and into our future (including retirement). We have both just turned 33 years old and want to get started on this right away. We are not desperate to do a deal but want to get started instead of just sitting back and talking about getting starting. I am originally from northern Minnesota, and had lived in Minneapolis for years after college in Mankato, MN. I have now lived in Pottsville, Pennsylvania for over five years. I’ve travelled to 45 of the 50 United States mostly while I was touring as a professional actor and singer from Seattle to New York. My favorite place has been New Orleans! We will need some helping this journey along the way but I am a quick learner and really get passionate about things that are important to me. Real estate investing is now in my top three priorities and is very important to me. As we are getting started in this journey, I’m hoping to build a relationship with a realtor because after we get started with our first property we will be looking to acquire more. Our goal to begin is to buy and hold the real estate for cash flow purposes. Preferably the right deal will have 2-4 units. We will be looking to finance the deal above the 20% down payment. To begin we weren’t really looking to go above the $100,000 mark, and would feel more comfortable in the $50,000 range. This is a big step for us and we want to be sure that we do the RIGHT deal not just any deal. If the right deal turns out to be a $35,000 property then that’s what we will do. If it turns out to be a $75,000 property then we will do our best to make that happen. The craziest thing that I didn’t realize until listening to the Bigger Pockets Podcasts is that I do have experience with real estate and land lording from my past. While I was in graduate school earning my Master of Fine Art in Acting degree, I did end up buying a duplex like I had set out to do, that I lived in the downstairs and rented out the upstairs to build equity and have someone else help pay the mortgage. I owned that property for 8 years and sold it in December of 2015. In June 2014, we bought an old church in PA, which we still own and use to run and operate our studio out of. We personally own the property in our name and the business has been paying us rent for 3.5 years. From an experience stand point we look like we have real estate investment experience on paper, which I understand can be good from a financing position. I look forward to being on Bigger Pockets and recently joined as a Pro Member after joining Brandon on a recent webinar talking about getting started with Real Estate Investing. Lastly, as I am writing this introduction message (which I know is long) Erin and I are getting ready to go see our first few properties with a Real Estate Agent this coming weekend! It’s very exciting to get started with this! Thanks for reading and feel free to introduce yourself back to me! Andrew