Newbie from Oahu Hawaii

[Allyn Wijnveldt]

Hi everyone, I’ve lived on Oahu all my life. Have a degree in accounting from UH, realized I couldn’t do that everyday, so continued to work in the automotive field during and after college. Still doing so today. I was lucky enough to chat with this one customer at the repair shop I used to work at......you know, the type who has more time than they know what to do with? Later I found out he had this freedom through RE. While that did start to get the wheels turning (didn’t really have any direction), it wasn’t until my (first one with the wife), 3rd property (first investment was in Guam where I learned that negative cash flow is no good, 2nd property was a townhouse), where we lived in one unit and rented out the other, did I realize how awesome passive income is! It took a decade, but better late than never. My wife and I have learned so much from our 3rd property purchase. We rented the larger top unit and lived in the small 1/1 and planned to do so for a year. Foundation repairs extended that to two years. We lived there with a non/functioning oven, a kitchen the size of 2 airplane bathrooms, for two years. While living in the small unit downstairs, we went through some noisy tenants who kept us up all night and racked up utility bills, to tenants who never got along, had three times the number of cats stated on the lease, to one of them spying on each other with a hidden camera! We have learned so much in these last few years. I’m posting here so I guess I’m a glutton for punishment or don’t know when to quit, lol. Today, the small unit is fully renovated and expanded to a 2/1.5, and we’ve had a great tenant in there for over a year. I first heard about BP from one of our good friends. We both always talk about escaping the rat race. We recommended they listen to a financial presentation we had just learned about. They actually signed up before we did, took the lessons learned and used their equity and have grown their RE portfolio quite a bit in the last few years. I couldn’t be happier for them. However, I’ve never really been happy with our current pace. It’s been four years since we bought the place, and we have yet to add another. While it is really expensive here, listening to podcasts, particularly David Greene’s one’s, kinda relit the fire so to speak. An expanding family, a demanding job, and the price of RE here do make things difficult, but at the end of the day, they are excuses. In my free time I like to spend as much time (which isn’t much these days), in the water as I can. Surfing, swimming, and teaching my kids to appreciate the ocean and all it has to offer. If it wasn’t for the ocean, I likely would have left this place long ago. I do like learning about real estate, investing, and going to open houses, even though the numbers here are high. Well, that’s all for now. If anyone needs any tips on where to eat here or where to stay, I have this island dialed.

[Clayton Mobley]

@Allyn Wijnveldt Welcome to BP! Living in HI, you will almost definitely need to invest out of state if cash flow is your focus. Luckily you are absolutely in the right place to learn all you need to know about which markets flow well, what types of investments are available to you, and which might be best suited to your situation and goals. I'd recommend setting up a bunch of key word alerts, some with increasing specificity. So if you like the Birmingham market (ok i'm biased) and multi family rentals, set up an alert for both terms concurrently (not just one for Birmingham and one for MFR), so you'll know when someone is talking about the exact investment you're considering.

Once you have an idea of what strategy you want to pursue, get active on the forums! Ask questions and reach out directly to people who seem to have valuable experience. Many people are more open and honest via PM than they can be on the forums, so if you see someone who has knowledge you need, message them directly - the worst thing they can do is not respond. 

Best of luck in your new adventure!

Clayton