25 year old's First Year of investing....$1.5m rentals acquired!

[David Zheng]

It's the start of a new year and the end of my first year of real estate investing. Just wanted to quickly share my story and hopefully inspire some people :)

Literally 13 months ago, I had 0 interest or education about real estate. Read somewhere on the internet at work about rentals and thought I'd give it a try. 30 days later I closed on a complicated unwarranted condo and rented it out in a day. From that moment I was hooked!!!

Since then I picked up 3 more condos, 3 single family homes and a 12 bedroom apartment building. All of them were turnkey properties and rented out within days except the 12 bedroom which was basically a gut rehab. Even though I never did any sort of construction work in my life, I decided to take the project head on as the PM. oh my god...I have never been so stressed out in my life. On top of trying to learn 1000x new things a day about plumbing, electrical, HVAC systems, flooring, painting, etc. I was trying to do 50% of the things myself (things that don't require a license). And I could not believe the amount of overpromises contractors made. But in the end many lessons are were learned and what better way to do it than through experience.

You might be thinking that's rough...I also have a full time job at Wells Fargo as a MBS consultant, self manage all 36 of my tenants, and own a nightlife business. Yup you bet I missed every holiday this year, worked many 100+ hour weeks, and basically lost my social life. Yup You bet I dealt with more paperwork, negotiating, and lender headache than anyone should. (Cause how else are banks going to trust a new 25 year old investor who buys a property every month). Yup you bet I've cried, spent countless hours screaming at a wall, passed out from exhaustion, and lost control of my emotions many times.

A lot of people say why don't you just hire a management company, why didn't you just hire a PM.

1. Based on all the crappy people i've dealt with from contractors, lenders, agents to inspectors, sellers, condo managers etc., I dont trust anyone to do a good job. Plus I doubt people can acquire high paying tenants as well as I can (I charge almost 35-40% above the rental comps in my area). I also trust myself to fix things quicker than anyone else.

2. I want to go through EVERYTHING in RE, the good and the bad. How do you expect to lead a project or purchase if you don't at least have a basic concept of everything involved. Now I know how much work different jobs take and how much things should cost. Youtube and Google are my best friends

3. If I feel bored, I feel really bad about myself. just me.

4. I'm super cheap.

Yes Life was rough, however you have to just constantly remind yourself what your working for. I dream of working from a beach house or traveling the world and giving orders to your employees while trekking through the amazon. I want the freedom to do anything and everything I want. To not have to check my bank account next time I want to take a vacation. To not have to worry about my (future) kid's schooling or my retirement. To just look at something cool on instagram and say I want to do that and just do it. I want to thrive not just live.

So where am I now? In 12 months, I've picked up $1.5 million in property and tripled my banking jobs monthly cashflow by 3x. However I'm basically dirtpoor cause I kept reinvesting.

Anywho, I got all emotional as I typed this because I kept thinking about the past. Thanks for mudding through it all!

And a HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE Thank you to the Bigger Pockets Community. I probably spend a couple hours each and every day reading posts, looking at articles or listening to podcasts. A lot of what I did would have been so difficult without BP.

Good Luck to everyone in 2017! May it be an even more fruitful year for all of us :)

[Michael Wagner]

@David Zheng!  Great Story and Thank you for sharing.  You have accomplished more in a short time than most investors will in their lifetime.  You certainly don't need a pep talk so instead I will offer you just a bit of advice from someone who did as you hope to in the coming years.  I exited the rate race at 30 and now work 10-15 hours per week managing my RE assets...the restof the time is spent chasing my two young kids around and traveling 60-90 days per year...my advice to you is to define what you want your life to look like (you did a pretty good job of that in your post, ie beach, amazon etc.) and that can certainly change along the way but what you don't want to do is keep moving the bar.  Out society tells us that more is better and there's no such thing as "enough".  You need to rebel against that idea and define "enough" for yourself so that you know when to cross the finish line (rather than moving it). The theory of Discontent is a very real one and can make even the richest among us to be less than happy.  It only effects people who chase Someone else's (our society's) definition of success rather than their own.  As long as you define success for yourself, your work ethic will get you there faster than you can probably imagine.  Get after it!!!!