How I got here and where I want to go

[Chris Christensen]

Hello everyone! I just wanted to take a few minutes to introduce myself and get some feedback. My name is Chris and I live in Vancouver, WA. 

A little history on myself and how I wound up interested in real estate investing, I grew up in and around construction (residential at first and later commercial). My construction days began when I was around 5 years old, my brother and I would have races to see who could disassemble and reassemble door knobs the fastest, who hasn't done that right. Our dad was/is a finish carpenter and found interesting ways to get us trained up in his trade starting very young. By the time we were ten we were cleaning up sawdust and installing doors and hardware in houses he was working on. A few years later we moved up to nailing trim and base, window sills, hardwood flooring installations, cabinetry, but still weren't trusted with the chop/miter saw and table saws quite yet. When my brother and I reached 16, we were tackling full scope residential carpentry for single family homes and apartment complexes. 

After the housing crash, when residential slowed down to a crawl, we saw an opportunity to move into commercial construction projects. Starting small, we took on remodels of local outlet stores and shops, then moved on to regional new store builds and existing store renovations with large construction firms. Everything was going great, traveling to parts of the Country I had never been to before and being paid to do it, work was in huge demand and we developed a good name in the trade. 

Then, 7 years ago, while we were a few weeks into a new store in Arizona, the news came that I was going to be a father and I quickly made the decision to put my traveling for work days behind me (Best decision I ever made. My daughter is amazing! I wouldn't give up the time I have with her for anything). My dad and brother are in California working on separate jobs as I am typing this. Anyway, once my daughter came into this world, I had a big decision to make to figure out how in the heck I was going to support her and her mom with no real experience outside of the construction industry. I had only worked a few short term jobs in my life up to that point with actual bosses that weren't related to me and I hated every minute of it. My skills didn't really transfer well to most places that I was familiar with that were hiring so I went to a temp agency. 

A few days later I started in the warehouse at a company making $12.00 per hour (I was making $30/hr when I left Arizona). The company I work at is a wholesale distribution company for HVAC and Refrigeration and I was at the ground level with very little knowledge in that industry. Long story short, after working extremely hard, I was promoted from the warehouse to Counter Sales, then dug deep into learning as much as I possibly could through training classes on the products, because if I am going to do something I'm going to be the best, I was promoted to management about a year ago. I'm still not convinced that I am built to work for someone else, which is what brought me to find Bigger Pockets. I have a constant voice in my head telling me that I should be doing something else. 

After getting past the baby years with daycare, formula, diapers and everything else that little ones require, I was finally able to spend a few years grinding and paying down my debts little by little, continuing to take care of my family, keeping a roof over our heads, and saving as much as I could. I am finally debt free and have a small savings stash where I feel confident to take on a little risk to find my happiness outside of my home. I also have a 529 plan set up for my daughter, life insurance, an HSA, IRA and a 401K aside from my savings, so I am confident that I could move on when the time is right and not be instantly screwed if I have a bad month.

I have been watching the podcasts for the past year or so and am extremely grateful for Josh, Brandon, David, Scott, Mindy, and all of the guests who have provided this amazing educational information. Every podcast makes me want it even more and today I made the leap to create an account and join the Pro Members, just finished my first deal analysis before writing this post. 

I am attending 5 local meetups in the next two weeks to network with local investors and I have a few vacation days I am taking this week to go start my business and get my first deals going. I am going to start with Wholesaling, since I have more time than money at the moment and plan to build up to my first multifamily house hack in the next 90 days.

I sincerely appreciate any advice for beginning with wholesaling, specifically what to say to agents or homeowners/prospective sellers when putting in the first offer when wholesaling. Do you let them know that you are working with investors and put a contingency on finding a buyer within a specified time frame in the contract? 

Thank you everyone! 

Chris Christensen