California - Late Newbie Intro

[Howard Chen]

Hello fellow BP members, 

My name is Howard and I know I'm a bit late with this introduction post as I find myself listening to the podcasts almost non-stop! I'm based in Sacramento, California. I look forward to connecting with many of you and hope to partner up with some of you on future deals.

Here is the TLDR: After 11 years since I first read Rich Dad Poor Dad, I've finally come full circle, "got off the couch, stopped watching tv, and took action", and bought my first house that is also a house hack!

If you're interested to find out the almost full story, read on: 

Like many of you, I read the Rich Dad Poor Dad books. I was 19 years old at the time, and it opened my mind up to the world of investing, I continued on a binge, reading as many business and real estate related books as I could possibly absorb. 

I settled upon trading, as I felt the barrier to entry in terms of initial capital was very low. Throughout the highs and lows of trading, I ended up right where I started repeatedly and didn't end up progressing. As I thrive in my day job and continued to climb the proverbial corporate ladder, I wonder to myself, is this it in life?

I've been very fortunate that my landlord of the last 12 years only raised my rent by $100 a couple of years ago, this past April, he told me he was going to sell both of his properties in the neighborhood. When I looked at the market rates for rent in my neighborhood, Realized everyone else was paying double the rent my landlord was charging me, I quickly came to the conclusion that I need to figure out a way to purchase my first house and renting simply no longer made sense. 

As I'm going through the home buying process, I was asking a million questions on Google, all the answers repeatedly point me to BP. I remember many years ago stumbling upon BP after playing the Cash Flow game over and over. At the time, I was looking for a way to get into REI, but quickly let many of the excuses that you hear on every episode of BP podcasts plague my mind, and always "went and sat back down on the couch to continue watching tv".

I did not know this back in April, but my landlord selling the property, was the biggest blessing in disguise.I was forced to take action! Long story short, I am patiently waiting for closing day in November on my first ever house hack! You can find all the details in the following link: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

You can also see some pics of the construction of my house hack in my profile. 

Now with momentum on my side, I look forward to doing more deals and have set a goal of acquiring enough rentals to have the remaining 2/3 of my monthly mortgage covered by the end of 2020. 

My long term goal, like many, is to have enough "time wealth" to spend time with my family, loved ones, friends, whenever and however I want to!(I am also guilty of having doodads(watches and cars) that I'd like to acquire later on) 

Happy Investing! 

Howard Chen