Hello! Finally HOME!

[Joshua Kemp]

Hello BP Community!

I am excited to be a part of this community and to see what building good relationships and networking on BP has to offer. I am a Fire Fighter by trade, so I have really enjoyed hearing stories, podcasts and the sort from @David Greene. I am looking forward to reading the book, Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: the BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple. I am enjoying running the numbers on several properties in my area, San Angelo, TX, and trying to use the LAPS Funnel, as @Brandon Turner has coined, to find the best deals. I want to Work (Way) less, but Accomplish (Way) more in 2020 and in doing so, I want when people refer to me say: "Of course he is successful and finds the best deals, he analyzes like 100 properties a week!" I am OK with that! I am left in AWE at the number of resources that BiggerPockets.com has to offer and at the commitment to the success of others of this community. The first webinar I attended was with @Matt Faircloth, "How to build Win-Win Wealth by Using Other People's Money." Guess what I learned? In this market, everyone CAN BE HAPPY with the deal! You do not have to be out to get the other guy. If I use private money to fund an investment property, they are getting INTEREST on their monetary investment. The seller, whether a private seller, bank, wholesaler, or whomever, is making a deal on a property that they WANT to sell. The contractor that I use is EARNING money on the deal by doing great work on the property. The RE agent gets a COMMISSION on the property paid for by the seller. The tenant gets a FULLY RENOVATED HOME that they can be PROUD of to live in, and for a fair price. Lastly, I get to earn a CASH FLOW that I can be happy with because part of my commitment to all of these people is doing my research and to become the best that I can be at what I do; Investing in Real Estate! As a bonus to everyone being happy with their part in this deal: I have also built great relationships and I am fine tuning the pump to get the best optimal business flow.

My fiance and I currently own outright one home, which before getting connected with BP, we unknowingly did a modified "House-Hack." We lived in a 3/2 with our 3 year old daughter and found a local college student willing to live with us AND be a nanny for our 3 year old. She rented out one of the bedrooms (currently still does), and is responsible for taking our daughter to school every morning. My fiance put an add in the "job listing" of the local college and included in the description that we were looking for a "Live-in-Nanny" with a discounted rate for housing. We had a TON of applications. After looking through the list, we found our nanny/tenant, and we both had a WIN-WIN DEAL! Her obligation was to take our daughter to school in the morning and the rest of the time was hers to go to college or work. She has since graduated college and now has her own financing job, so she still has the win of inexpensive housing, plus still has the time to have a full-time career.

We are also currently within paying off our second home this year (which was my first home). But we have not have had to pay a single penny of our own money on that home for at least the last 7 years. For the first few years, my sister lived in the home and all I had her pay was the mortgage, utilities, taxes, insurance. It was a win for her because she was able to stay in a home as if she were purchasing the home, but did not have to have the stress of repairing things when they broke, plus, it was still significantly less than renting the home would have been. It was a win for me because at the time, I had just got a divorce and was unable to pay all of the expenses on my own. Now, for the last about 4 years, this house has since been rented out to other tenants and I am managing the property myself.

Our goal is to finishing paying this house off and be able to use our own money to invest back into more properties via a HELOC (thanks @Matt Faircloth for the information on the webinar on how to accomplish this) and use the BRRRR Strategy to supercharge my success. I am excited to meet some of the local BP members in the local meetup that we have coming up at the end of this month. I am also excited to network with others here in the BP community and build strong, long lasting relationships. I am glad to be FINALLY HOME!

Happy Hunting BP Community,
Joshua Kemp