Tell me your Real Estate story!

[Samuel Jolicoeur]

Good Saturday everyone! As I sit here in my Open House in between guests, I'm thinking about all of the negatives right now: high interest rates, high prices, and negative market sentiment. But to cheer myself up I’m thinking about all the great stories I’ve heard about people who were bit by the real estate bug and never looked back. So let’s all get to know each other a bit better and tell our stories!

How did you get bit by the bug? What was your journey like? How did you start? Where are you now?

I’ll go first: I’m still newer. I grew up in a middle-class family that was hit hard by the Great Recession. My parents had refinanced their free and clear house to invest in renting out a nearby condo. When the market crashed they started getting bad tenants, and they could no longer afford to keep the condo running.  So they sold it at a huge loss at the bottom of the market. They’ve never recovered to this day and so I got very little financial support from them, I even gave them money sometimes. When I was 18 I started getting involved in penny stocks and other risky trades on Robinhood and through the YouTuber Graham Stephan, I started getting exposed to real estate. To make a long story short I got my AA, then eventually decided to get my license in Florida and now a few years later I’m with Keller Williams sitting in an empty open house. My partner and I own a house and I’ve got a plan in place to buy my first rental property in 2024. My parents negative experience with rentals has been a mental wall for me to break through, but the tales of success that I’ve seen and read keep me going. I’ve met Gary Keller and heard his story too, and found motivation in how much I could relate to him when he was a young man. By no stretch of the imagination am I a wild success yet, but I say that with a big ‘yet’. But I’m on the path and I’m loving every minute of it, especially when it’s with like-minded folks like all of you.

Enough of me, tell me your story!

[Steve Vaughan]

Good story @Samuel Jolicoeur and good for you bootstrapping yourself up!

Briefly since most know my story- I was 30 and 4 years into a cubicle finance job in Denver 2001 looking for a change when I saw a late night Carelton Sheets infomercial.   I'd always wanted residual income so buy and hold rentals intrigued me.  

I studied for a year, read books from the library, books on tape, etc, quit my job, 'sold' my house with a lease option, moved 3 states away closer to family into a trailer park and got busy.  

I was full-time 2002-2022 and sold most on contracts last year.  The great recession was great for my 3 dozen b-class portfolio as owners became renters but I can see how someone's single rental could suffer if your tenants were laid off. 

Buying rentals with no job forced me to learn creative finance.  The bulk of my buys, especially lager 7-10 unit ones 2003-2007 were seller-financed.   I haven't seen this much broad interest in creative financing ever. 

2008-11 short sales primarily,  2012-2013 rates dropped but cash was king. Then low rate conventional through 2021.  Cycles that will probably repeat.

Don't be afraid to go bigger.  Lots of mom and pop tired landlords in the small commercial apt space that are under the radar of larger purchasers and completely ignored by the general public.