Newbie Investor In Phillipsburg, NJ!!!

[William Keeler]

Hello BP,

First and foremost I would like to thank you all for the continuous stream of content that I have been learning from for over a year.

I have learned so much from you all. Every time i ever had a question prior to this deal I would literally ask it into the google machine with the added "+biggerpockets" and was blessed with a multitude of similar questions, well thought out answers, and knowledgeable debate.

For a background of me, I will shortly be closing my 1st RE deal. It is a duplex that I will "house hack" in Phillipsburg, NJ.

I became seriously interested in Real Estate Investing after both the best and worst moment of my adult life. I was working for a cellular company. A company in which i had worked my way up from an $11/hr employee starting after college into a $90k per year Store Manager 9 years later. I have had interest in real estate since i was younger (was actually a RE agent for a short time in NYC at age 22) but always considered it as something I may consider when I was much older and what I assumed would be "richer". On the day I was terminated, I remember thinking to myself, once the shock wore off (I was the 9th best performing Mgr out of aprox. 3000 at that time) that I had been foolish to count on an Employer's perception as the sole value of my wealth.

I spent the next 2 months not only looking for a new job but also reinvigorating my love for real estate. Upon a consistent youtube wormhole binge (both during and after my "shifts" on Indeed) I found many of Brandon Turner's easy to understand and detail oriented videos into how to get into this world of real estate and quickly understood I didn't have to wait nearly as long as I had originally anticipated to act and begin building wealth outside of what an employer could dictate.

I will say that during my profession that I made the common mistake that most probably make when they first come into real money. As my salary increased, so did my spending. Despite having the annual wage I was making I had very little saved in the bank, which ended up being just enough to pay my rent and all my bills for the 3 months I was unemployed. However, one thing I did do right during my time of employment was to engage in employee stock purchasing options, 401k and mutual funds that pulled directly from my check.

Once re-employed (at an albeit 25% lower wage) I vouched to never leave myself in such risk of financial peril again. I began to dig deeper into these forums, listened to a multitude of the BP podcasts, read multiple books suggested by successful investors, and found an area within 1 hour of my apartment in Bergen County, NJ that made financial sense to explore further.

I found a RE agent who became more of a gate keeper then an agent. She had not dealt with many/any RE investors before. I worked around the clock during all off hours to scour MLS listings for properties that fit my new found criteria. I would send her a list almost daily of properties for her to line up for us to see on all my days off. She would open the doors on what became upwards of almost 100 properties over the next 6 months (bless her heart).

I made an early offer on what I believed to be a great Duplex. I made a full price offer, despite the heat being an owner expense for both units, and was luckily, in retrospect, outbid for that property. It wasn't the house hack I was truly interested in and could have been a headache to own long term due to the added heating expenses. I continued to study the craft and upon being overly anxious and frustrated in not finding the right fit I put another offer on a duplex that was a money pit in the making. Upon my offer being accepted and contingent inspection, the amount of deferred maintenance revealed was so much that I pulled out of the deal entirely. This experience raised my awareness to look beyond just the rental income and price during my assessments of a potential deal and I quickly jumped back into the Youtube hole and BP forums to learn exactly what I should be looking for.

Which brings us to today, exactly 9 days from my closing date on my first duplex. It is not what many would define as a home run but I feel it is a solid double with run scoring potential. It is a 2/1 over a 2/1. The top 2/1 is rented and leased for $900 per month. It has an unfinished attic with 3 egress windows, an open staircase and sq footage that runs the entire length of the 1700 sq foot home, 90% of which has the proper height for a finished room. It has a brand new roof and the heat and hot water heaters are all separate and are smack dab in the middle of their expected lifespan. The bottom 2/1 is vacant and will be my new home. I will sacrifice and commute longer to work to make this dream a reality. There is cosmetic work to be completed and cosmetically pleasing 2/1s in the area rent between $1000-$1200. I will be doing a lot of this cosmetic work myself over the next year.

My appraisal has come back today and it is being evaluated at a value of $148,500.

The appraisal also analyzed all expected expenses, cap ex, vacancy and eventual property management cost and anticipated my net income as currently construed to be $100 per door per month once I am no longer occupying the property.

My purchase price is $133,000 with $573 seller assist.

I will have over $20k in equity after applying my 5% down once I receive the keys.

I could not have made this first step without all of you on this forum and all the creators of this life changing site.

I already have some plans for a potential part 2 of this story and look forward to embarking on my journey with all of you.

Thank you BP.

[William Keeler]

@James Wise Thank you sir. It feels great to not just be the lurking reader on here and to throw myself into the community with my 1st deal!

@David Vitarelli Thank you as well. With my first purchase officially closed, some hard work and a little of that luck will hopefully get me rolling in the right direction!

@Daniel Vandenbos Thanks for your encouraging remarks. Sounds like we are on a similar path and I will take you up on that offer. There's some local Tue REIA meetups I already have had in mind to start attending, maybe we hit them together.

@Brett Baginski Thank you too sir. Milford was actually an area I was looking at years ago as far as a place nearby for a primary home. What a small world and/or a Big Biggerpockets! I will definitely be posting on all the parts of my journey.

Thank you all for making me feel so welcome!