Long intro, but with helpful tips. Stick with it

[Chris Deatrick]

Let me start off with saying that I do consider myself a “Newbie”. Now, let me give you my background. I am a 35 year old native San Diegan business owner with a steadily growing auto repair shop in its third year and a current staff of three. My wife of five years is a well established psychiatric medical provider. Currently have no children except for the one 4 legged fur child. I’d say income wise, we live a fairly comfortable life style with little debt, slow growing savings, and regular traveling. I’m not telling you this in attempt to showboat, I’m simply telling you this to set the stage for why I am here. In fact, I will admit I’ve made plenty of mistakes around personal finance, business decisions, real estate decisions, and even in my own marriage. For my fellow dudes out there, it’s not too late to learn from the mistakes and turn it around. Anyway, for the WHY....

We currently own 2 single family homes, one is a rental producing almost no positive cash flow, and one we live in which we currently house-hack. It is a split level home and we run an Airbnb in the bottom half, which on average, covers 80% of the monthly mortgage. We had another rental property performing very well, but ended up selling after we had to deal with bad tenants and lots of damage. Honestly, emotions got in the way and we sold. Still did ok considering we bought it in the low of 2010. So, here’s why I’m here; although we enjoy our business ventures and strive to invest more into real estate for years to come, we want to take a more aggressive approach to achieve financial freedom. Also, we want the freedom to roam. Meaning, freedom to relocate and travel more. I/we are here to learn, grow, make connections, and take the proper steps to achieve our goals.

Now for the Tips.....

As I mentioned above, we have a little experience in real estate, but I still consider myself a newbie. Mostly due to the fact that we want to take more of a serious strategic approach to owning profitable rental properties. So, here are two tips I have found to help move in the right direction. Nothing crazy or new, just things that are working so far.

1. House hacking. As I mentioned, we utilize the lower half of our home for Airbnb. We started with having a long term tenant, but after he moved on, we decided to rethink our strategy. It’s a decent space, but not equipped with a full kitchen, we were limited on what we could price it at for a typical long term rental. Even with the expense of supplies, paid house cleaning between bookings, and a higher rate insurance; the Airbnb still nets almost double the long term rental did. If you ever thought about it, I’d say try it.

2. This one I’m most excited about. My wife and pride ourselves on our eagerness to continuously educate and grow. Audiobooks and podcasts are my thing. Also, in typical entrepreneurial fashion, I always look for other income streams. So, a few months back I started doing DoorDash. If you are not familiar, it is one of these gig style jobs when you deliver food from local restaurants right to the customers doorstep, similar to Grubhub or Uber Eats. I already know what some of you are thinking, but stick with me.

This part time “job” has provided some serious opportunities and benefits. First, of course, the added income. I currently average 18-$20 an hour and I do it own my own schedule. Honestly, not that bad for the type of work. However, these next few benefits I value more than the income aspect. With all the extra hours I am now stuck in the car, I can take in a lot more educational material via audiobooks and podcasts. Throughout my week, I’m soaking up information about finances, real estate, business marketing, and even growing a marriage. Also, sometimes I drive around in pure silence. Thinking....thinking, and thinking some more. I even carry a notepad now, so if I find myself on a 5 minute break waiting for an order, I will jot down any ideas or information I want to revisit later. Remember how I said I own a business which is still growing? Well, doing these deliveries has giving me added benefit to market my auto repair business. Not just in informative audiobooks and podcasts, but in physical marketing. I meet many local restaurant owners, drop business cards and special offers on counters, and get more familiar with my own community. That last part may get the attention of those of you who are out there physically looking for properties. I deliver food...to people who live in neighborhoods...neighborhoods with houses, condos, duplexes, apartments etc. I come across vacant houses, for sale signs, new construction, and record it all in my notepad. It’s like I’m getting paid to learn, grow my current business, network, and take action towards real estate investing.

Like I said, these tips are nothing crazy or new, but it may help other take steps in the right direction of real estate investing. Also, like I said, I’m a newbie. I’m still learning and growing.

If anyone reading this has questions, please reach out. Likewise, if anybody has tips for me, please reach out, I’d love to hear them. Thank you