Taking Risks With Starting

[Mike Cinelli]

I need some advice! This is going to be a longer post because I feel there's a lot to unpack.

After holding myself back for years from getting started I am currently getting financing for a 3-family house hack in Central mass!

I found an investor-mindset realtor through a broker that I took some real estate classes from a few years back. After reviewing a bunch of properties, it turns out this realtor is selling a 3 family to fund the renovations of another one of his properties. We get talking about building a portfolio of buy and holds and end up digging into this property and the potential for me. Being at a turning point in my life, I decided to jump at it and start the process. My credit isn't great so it's been a battle to get the approval, but contract deposit, inspection and the rest is good to go so far and the property is off the market.

This is a 3 family property with 2 buildings. The front has a 1 bedroom apartment and a studio. Total income from that building is $1,650, and I will be buying the building for $330,000 with the seller covering closing costs, and a gift for the deposit given to me by family. I will be living in the rear building and renovating by hand for experience and budget on this FHA loan. After it's rented out and I can force appreciate the property, with some added features that may turn into more monthly income, I will likely cashflow $200-300 total after expenses and after moving out. In the meantime I'm okay with covering the expenses as it's cheaper than apartments in MA currently.

In the meantime, I am technically homeless staying with my parents sometimes with a 2+ hour commute to work while I try to get into this investment (because I didn't plan before blowing up my life - not making that mistake again.)

Here's the problem:

I'm currently a sales rep stepped down from a team lead at a remodeling (exterior home improvement such as roofing siding and windoes) company. I've been here for years and I love the thought of the more I put in the more I get out. The harder I work and more I sell more I lead the more I get paid. However, leadership above me has taken a drastic dive and the office culture has taken a toll, and currently I worry about the stability of the branch and future income. I'm on commission only, and while there's the potential to make $200,000+ in sales with considerably not that much effort, I don't see how that's doable without a change in leadership and I don't know if that's coming.

So I've been applying to sales management and leadership positions with good base salaries, but I'm really having trouble giving up the potential for income and aggressive investing for some security and consistency. I feel I would go crazy knowing I only have so much to set aside no matter what I do every week.

That's why I've been finding deals and sending out proposals to see if I can get something going to supplement the additional income I would need to invest and build the portfolio I want. However, I'm also massively struggling in finding partners.

So fellow investors, what are your opinions on salaried stability vs uncapped potential in a field related to real estate and what do you think I should do at this point in life?