Decision decisions, renting instead of owning

Sorry for the lack of content recently, I just had Lasik surgery and it’s been a fun ride. To keep a long story about my eyes short, my eyes aren’t fully adjusted yet. Most people take 2 to 3 days for the vision to become near 2020 and it’s almost been a week from me and it’s still adjusting. Doc said I just have to deal with this farsightedness until everything clears up in up to 3 weeks… great!

Everything is much sharper than it used to be, but there is a blur to everything that is further than 6 in from my face. As you can probably understand this doesn’t really help when trying to write blog posts or do work in IT… But that’s okay, things will get better.

While I’ve been resting and trying to heal my eyes I’ve had the opportunity to listen to a lot of podcasts and audio books. I’ve completed the audio books BRRRR, investing in real estate with little or no money down, the goal, and I’m almost halfway through the millionaire real estate investor. On top of this I’ve listened to about 15 bigger pockets podcasts which are about an hour to an hour and a half long each.

Yup, just like that.

One of the biggest aha moments that popped out to me during this period was renting versus having a single family home for a personal residence. I’ve always thought of the American dream and how the standard of any family is based around the single family home. In one of the bigger pockets podcasts one of the guest speakers discusses how him and his newlywed wife decided to go against that grain and rent at an apartment instead of having a single family home.

Something immediately clicked in my head. Let’s rent!

You see, I have an Excel sheet outlining the next 10 years of my real estate investment plan. (Yes I know that’s too far into the future to be able to predict everything, but it’s just a rough outline. I understand I’m going to have to pivot and modify the plan many many times.) But let’s put that aside for now.

In the year 2 and 3 of my plan I have set aside about $50,000, a 20% down payment, for a single family home for my wife and I to move out of my parents and back into a house of our own. What if I use that money to buy another triplex or quad instead and we move into a rental apartment?

I discussed this with my wife, and being the patient understanding and loving person that she is, she said she would give it the old college try. If we could find something in a nice neighborhood, with low crime, and a great floor plan, she would entertain the idea.

Great! The deal is pretty much set in my head as done. She likes to remind me that she is not 100% set on the idea yet and we would need to find something that fits all of her criteria. I’m sure there’s got to be 1 apartment somewhere in the Central/North Central part of where we live with something that fits her needs and some! I’ll roll those dice any day!

Hope that was helpful! See you next time!