The road so far: More recent influences

My parents scrimped and saved so I could attend my dream school, Cornell University in beautiful (if frigid) Ithaca, NY. Dad, who had been self-employed since my childhood to be more involved in raising me, took a job at a law firm while I was in high school to help prepare for the costs. A belated casualty of the recession, he was laid off 2009 or 2010. Mom was sick by then so health insurance costs were astronomical. Ironically, her final gift to me was a free year of college. Because she passed away in the first semester of my senior year and Dad was self-employed at the time, having a "single parent" without W2 income meant that I was given a full tuition grant for the year. That had to have been worth some $35-45k at the time. While losing a parent suddenly was a tragedy, there's some small comfort in knowing she'd be happy with her last gift.

As a young scientist, I pursued but ultimately (and SO happily) dropped two PhD programs in favor of two Master's degrees from Michigan State, in Pharmacology/Toxicology and Forensic Science. Not only was my entire grad school experience fully funded by fellowships and recruiting scholarships, but I managed to put away a little nest egg during those frugal years. Dad helped me get it set up in a Vanguard fund.

I took a research position for a pittance when I moved to Virginia because it was the right move to network into my current, dream position. I was being paid over double what I made when I lived in Michigan, but cost of living will get ya. In 2017 I found the Dough Roller Money podcast by Rob Berger. I learned how to calculate my net worth, a fun exercise that I now look forward to doing at the end of every month. Unsurprisingly, the novelty increases along with my net worth :) Rob's tagline has stuck with me: Make more, spend less, and invest the rest.

Dough Roller was the only personal finance podcast I listened to for a long time. In December 2018, with the furlough looming, I found myself in the library. I think I was looking for a recipe book but took up Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Thames. While I never went as extreme as her Americorps days, her stories still rang true to me. I signed up for her Uber Frugal Month Challenge in January and was reading her content daily. Honestly, the furlough made it easy to be frugal, I was watching every last penny! Sometime in January I stumbled onto the Afford Anything podcast by Paula Pant and was consuming it at lightning speed. (Seriously, with the miles I drive and free time I had to hike, I crank through podcasts and audiobooks like nobody's business.) 

While I first learned about "minding the gap" from Rob Berger, Paula was my introduction to the idea that you can't "frugal your way to financial independence." I started to see how my analysis paralysis kicked in ALL the time for small purchases. (An aside: Time actually did an interesting article on sexism which had a quick blurb on how decision making changed for a transgender man, becoming much easier and more decisive after taking testosterone.) It didn't click right away that I should abandon this behavior. Sure, maybe it's $1 here or there... but after literally 15 years as a consumer, that scrimping sure did help keep me in a better financial position than if I hadn't paid so much attention.

Now that I'm settling into my career and raises are on the horizon, I'm valuing my time more... in part because my workplace is also telling me it's worth more too. That's the tail wagging the dog, but the dog is starting to take control. I'm asking myself, "Of all the things I could spend my time, energy, and effort on, is THIS what I want to be doing?" Turns out, I'm surprised to find the answer is occasionally "nope." Paula's (paraphrased) attitude of, "money isn't the only limited resource: your time, energy, and effort are too," has really helped me see the real value of my most important asset... myself.

Paula gave me the real estate bug, which lead me next to ChooseFI. I found a ChooseFI meetup in DC and drove 2 hours in the snow to meet those folks. Someone gifted me a copy of David Greene's Long Distance Real Estate Investing. I was blown away by the generosity of folks I met there. One of them helped me realize that my Vanguard account, while a good move by my dad to get me started investing, wasn't working for me from a tax perspective and I really needed to open a Roth IRA (a goal which will be realized in May 2019!) I found a few people running a ChooseFI group closer to me and I went to their first meetup several weeks ago (another 1 hour drive, thanks to traffic). 

The next kindness was landlord from a Facebook group who reached out to recommend Mike Butler's Landlording on Autopilot. I'm listening to it a second time right now, and I really think this philosophy of automation and treating tenants as though they are employees of your investment properties really is the way to go.

After ChooseFI was when I finally got into BiggerPockets. I loved my first webinar, but have been nervous about making contact with people. I'm new, I'm young, I don't know anything, I haven't done the things these folks have! I've been blown away by the extent to which (former!) strangers have been willing to reach out, provide information, and share words of encouragement. People here have been just as awesome as the ChooseFI group. ChooseFI has been something of a support network of like-minded folks my age, while BP has been full of encouragement and folks willing to help me figure out how to take action on my goals.

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If the above has been a description of my influences as I've decided to pursue financial freedom through real estate investing, the below is a screenshot of actions I've taken so far to help make that real.

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Long ago, as an avowed introvert, I (painfully) learned the benefit of networking. Perhaps it was a family trip to Ireland when I kissed the Blarney Stone in exchange for the legendary gift of gab, I've gotten better at talking to people. Being active in my local Toastmaster's group has also helped. I also attend a large number of unrelated discussion groups and book clubs each month. (Yes, it is possible to be addicted to talking to people about whatever it is that lights your fire.) From all these experiences, I felt confident enough to start a monthly meetup for real estate investors. I consider the first meeting to have been a great success: 8 people RSVP'ed and 12 showed up! I posted a meeting summary on the event page, which includes how our future meetings will be structured, if you want to check it out. I hope it turns into something awesome.

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My current adventures have led me to drive from Northern VA to Huntsville, AL this week. It's my third day here with boots on the ground. I've found a promising realtor / PM and have had the time of my life driving around a ton of neighborhoods looking at properties. This really is a patchwork quilt of A to C neighborhoods in short distances if I've ever seen one, but I'm loving it. On my first two days I hit 4-5 neighborhoods and checked out about 35 properties, including things that are currently for sale as well as for rent.

I'm coming to realize that the money I have to get started ($15k) isn't going to be enough for me to get a manageable loan here by myself, let alone compete with the fast all-cash offers that seem to be the flavor of the month. I love being here and having the chance to identify potential opportunities myself. I've only had time to run numbers for one deal so far, a giant fixer upper (possibly a gut job or tear down) in a historic A neighborhood, but it's in such bad shape (tree through roof) a conventional lender wouldn't go for it. I think it might be a motivated buyer situation since it's FSBO and the owner appears to be an elderly woman with about 10-12 properties in the area. It's a heck of a situation for a first timer, but perhaps there's someone out there willing to be an equity partner with me on it :)

I've been told the sweet spot is around $80-120k here. I'm seeing $105 at the cheapest for current MLS listings. There are properties that I think have potential, but I still need to run some more numbers on them. Bless whoever it was (probably Brandon) who said, "Every property has a number that will make it a good deal. Figure out what that number is and try to make it work." It's keeping me from getting discouraged before I have to leave Huntsville on Monday morning. But... if you have cash and might be interested in following up on some of the properties I've looked at... I'd love to be in touch!