Marine Scientist Hoping to Start Multifamily Investing

[Brenden Mitchum]

Howdy fello BPrrrrs!

First off, please forgive me for doing this a little backwards. I have already posted a couple of times, but am finally getting around to telling y'all a little about myself.

I am a marine scientist currently working as a fisheries observer in the Hawaii longline fishery. A typical trip out at sea is 3-4 weeks if fishing for tuna and 4+ weeks when fishing for swordfish. The work is incredibly boring and monotonous once the novelty wears off (which it does quicker than you might expect). However, it is a fantastic way to save money since spending is close to zero when out at sea. Soon into starting this work I realized that it was not a career for me and that I would use it to save up, pay off student loans, and network for other positions in marine science. At this same time, I began listening to personal finance podcasts. This quickly led me to listening to Paula Pant's Afford Anything podcast, which was my first introduction into the idea of real estate investing. 

Now, after a year of educating myself through podcasts and many real estate investing books, I am incredibly excited about the prospect of beginning my own portfolio of longterm buy and hold multifamily investments. My plan is to continue building my savings with this job for another year before purchasing my first investment as a house hack for my partner and myself to also have our first primary residence. The location for this is still very up in the air, but right now my top prospect is the San Diego area. I definitely need to do more research into different markets but so far this has been a very daunting task and I am still figuring out how exactly to go about it. I am also planing to find a mentor in my current area (Honolulu) to get a little hands on experience. There does not appear to be a ton of real estate meet-ups happening here, but I could be looking in the wrong places. 

My longterm goal is to build a large enough portfolio of positively cash-flowing multifamily properties to support a career in low-income and volunteer marine science positions, while also being able to travel the world. I would love to help rehabilitate and conserve our marine world, but am unable to support myself and eventually a family on the work I would like to do. I plan to accomplish this is by purchasing at least one property each year for the first two years, then increasing my purchases by one property per year each year. I am hoping to manage the properties for at least the first two purchases before switching to a manager. During the first few years I will likely (unfortunately) have to continue working as a fisheries observer. However, I hope to go full-time into investing by 2023. And I plan to be completely financially free by 2030; able to fully pursue my dreams of non/low profit marine conservation and travel.

Well that's a little about me and my plan (hopefully not too lengthy an explanation). Please feel free to drop some comments and let me know what you think/give any advise you think could help. As I am still in the early stages of planning, I am very open to criticism and changing said plan. 

Hope everyone's having a good weekend! Who Dat!

Brenden

[Gabriel Amedee]

Hey @Brenden Mitchum !

Congrats on forming your plan. Seems straight forward and simple. Calculate returns in each market and then compare with quality of living to give yourself an idea of what you are willing to give and take. That is typically how location is chosen for most of my clients pursuing a house hack.

Happy investing!

[Brenden Mitchum]

Excellent advise @Gabe Amedee! Thank you!

P.S. I have no idea how to "mention"/@ people here so someone please help!

[Daniel Kong]

Welcome to BP @Brenden Mitchum! You will find a lot of helpful advice and people here. Keep reading and educating yourself. If you want to reference someone, type @ - the "@" symbol, then start typing the person's name and they should pop up. You will only see names of people either in the thread or who you are friends with.

Speaking of meetups @Duc Ong is hosting a MultiFamily meetup soon at Whole Foods in Ward I think. That might be something helpful for you to attend. Good luck on your journey!

[Duc Ong]

Yes, the meetup will be at whole foods kakaako on 10/8 5-8PM on the 2nd floor by Two Tides bar. Let me know if can make it!

[Trudy Pachon]

Welcome Brenden! 

Thanks for sharing your plan. I love your long term plan of giving back and helping to conserve our oceans. I find that having my plan for the future and making it about my morals and values is incredibly motivating. 

I would strongly suggest attending any REI meet ups you can find and meeting folks who are doing what you want to do.

Best of luck in putting your plan into action!

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Brenden Mitchum:

Howdy fello BPrrrrs!

First off, please forgive me for doing this a little backwards. I have already posted a couple of times, but am finally getting around to telling y'all a little about myself.

I am a marine scientist currently working as a fisheries observer in the Hawaii longline fishery. A typical trip out at sea is 3-4 weeks if fishing for tuna and 4+ weeks when fishing for swordfish. The work is incredibly boring and monotonous once the novelty wears off (which it does quicker than you might expect). However, it is a fantastic way to save money since spending is close to zero when out at sea. Soon into starting this work I realized that it was not a career for me and that I would use it to save up, pay off student loans, and network for other positions in marine science. At this same time, I began listening to personal finance podcasts. This quickly led me to listening to Paula Pant's Afford Anything podcast, which was my first introduction into the idea of real estate investing. 

Now, after a year of educating myself through podcasts and many real estate investing books, I am incredibly excited about the prospect of beginning my own portfolio of longterm buy and hold multifamily investments. My plan is to continue building my savings with this job for another year before purchasing my first investment as a house hack for my partner and myself to also have our first primary residence. The location for this is still very up in the air, but right now my top prospect is the San Diego area. I definitely need to do more research into different markets but so far this has been a very daunting task and I am still figuring out how exactly to go about it. I am also planing to find a mentor in my current area (Honolulu) to get a little hands on experience. There does not appear to be a ton of real estate meet-ups happening here, but I could be looking in the wrong places. 

My longterm goal is to build a large enough portfolio of positively cash-flowing multifamily properties to support a career in low-income and volunteer marine science positions, while also being able to travel the world. I would love to help rehabilitate and conserve our marine world, but am unable to support myself and eventually a family on the work I would like to do. I plan to accomplish this is by purchasing at least one property each year for the first two years, then increasing my purchases by one property per year each year. I am hoping to manage the properties for at least the first two purchases before switching to a manager. During the first few years I will likely (unfortunately) have to continue working as a fisheries observer. However, I hope to go full-time into investing by 2023. And I plan to be completely financially free by 2030; able to fully pursue my dreams of non/low profit marine conservation and travel.

Well that's a little about me and my plan (hopefully not too lengthy an explanation). Please feel free to drop some comments and let me know what you think/give any advise you think could help. As I am still in the early stages of planning, I am very open to criticism and changing said plan. 

Hope everyone's having a good weekend! Who Dat!

Brenden

 Welcome to the site Brenden.

[Brenden Mitchum]

Thank you @Daniel Kong! Hopefully I am doing it right now. I will definitely be reaching out to @Duc Ong regarding that upcoming meet up. Thank you for looping him into the thread.

[Brenden Mitchum]

@Duc Ong I will definitely be there as long as I am still on the island. Currently waiting to go back out to sea but unsure when that will be. Thank you so much for the invite!

[Brenden Mitchum]

Hi @Trudy Pachon!

Thank you so much for your support! I am confident I'll be able to find a meet up and network in my area in the coming weeks

[Brenden Mitchum]

Thanks! @James Wise

[Lori Greene]

Hi Brendan, I have some investor friends who did very well there with as live-in investors. They would buy a fixer upper and fix it up while living in it, then rent it out and do the same with the next one. You could even refinance it at the new ARV after fixing it up and use the equity to help buy the next place (BRRRR). They built quite a portfolio doing that. I know live-in investing might not work for you right now because you mentioned managing your properties while at sea. Maybe for now you can take on a partner to help you with managing and then try house hacking in Multi-Family later on.

[Michael Borger]

Hi @Brenden Mitchum - cool background. I was initially a PhD student in the geography department at UH focusing on coastal matters. I did some field work in Thailand, other work in SOEST and had an RA with NMFS for a bit before leaving the science world behind (at least professionally - it's still my top passion). You probably know my friends Max and Justin in the same field. I live in San Diego now, though Hawaii is still my main market. Lots of opportunities here in SD though it's definitely a competitive market -- a house hack would be a good way to go, especially if you can lease option it.