A little bit of history…

A little bit of history….

It will be an awfully long post that will outline a span of 25 years of my life telling you about who I am and what I have done up to this point.

I am an immigrant. I was born and raised in Soviet Union in a suburb of Moscow. Both of my wonderful parents were engineers working for Defense and Space industries. They worked hard all their life and ingrained these principles into me and my sister – do good in school, go to college, find a job and work hard, be humble and honest.

When I was in a high school the Soviet Union had collapsed and it became a democratic Russia. Well, some can argue the democratic portion, but this is not going to be a political blog, so we will leave it at that.

After graduating from high school, I went to the Moscow State Technical University and got myself a master’s degree in applied Math. Talking about nerdy 😊 But I just love numbers and spreadsheets till this day.

I have been lucky after college and got a job at a Russian Space flagship company and became a part of a flight control team for the International Space Station. This was an awesome time. The pay was terrible, but I was frugal enough and enjoyed every minute of it. Working in a Flight Director Office gave me an incredible insight into how the entire flight control operations are set up, allowed me to meet many talented people and astronauts, and how about the bragging rights – I can definitely say that I used to be a Rocket Scientist 😊

Working in the Space Industry eventually brought me to US. As a part of ongoing mission support, flight controllers from Space Centers in Houston, TX and Moscow, Russia were going on a business trips to each other Space Centers to provide partner support and take on control of they own segment of the Space Station in case of emergency. Let’s say if there is a direct hurricane hit on Houston, the US team that is on a business trip in Russia would step in and assume control of US segment of the Space Station until full operational capabilities in Houston will be restored. And vise versa.

I have been a part of such support groups a few times and had to travel from Moscow to Houston for 3 months long business trips. During one of these trips, I have met my now husband who was at the time working as a NASA contractor in a Houston Space Center and was training astronauts. 2 days before the end of that business trip we have got married. Talking about fast… it was just 2.5 months from the time we met. HUGE gamble, irresponsible, do not recommend to others, but it surely worked for us. 17 years and we are still going strong!

So, since I was still employed, I had to head back to Moscow 2 days into our marriage, quit my job, say goodbye to my family and then wait 1 year for a spouse visa. Yes, it takes that long for all the background checks and authorizations. Finally, I was able to unite with my husband. It was February of 2004.

The planned path forward was to continue to work in the Space industry, since this is where I had all my experience, was well known, had references, and was comfortable with. Well, it did not happen that way. First, even though I was absolutely legal, since I left the US right after getting married, I didn’t get my Green Card right away. I had my spouse visa but could not work without employment permit till I would get the Green Card (little did I know at that time that it will be 4 long years till I’ll get it). So, applying for the employment permit it was. Want to guess how long did it take to receive? 9 months! Could have had a baby in that time…

Second, after I finally got my permit, I discovered another “nice” detail. The permit is not enough to work in the Space industry, you must have a Green Card or to be a citizen. Oh, boy! It was such a downer. Imagine having companies to call you to schedule an interview, just to call you back and cancel because of that stupid Green Card that you have no way to expedite…

So, I had to rethink what I wanted to do. My next choice, being us living in Houston and me having an engineering degree, was Oil and Gas industry. In early 2005 I started applying to big Oil companies and got my dose of reality – they didn’t want a person who had to renew they employment permit each year, had no industry experience, and no US work history. It was a hard pill to swallow. And it was also scary, all my adult life before that I was working and supporting myself. Now I had to rely on my husband, who was and is absolutely wonderful, but this adjustment together with learning the culture, traditions, and language was huge.

All I can say it is good to be young and flexible 😊

If you think that this is the point when I discovered Real Estate, you are wrong. It didn’t even cross my mind. Remember? The path is to go to college, find a job, and work hard.

Later that year I became pregnant with our first child and it became apparent that we needed some form of extra income to support our growing family. It was October 2005 and I decided that I will swallow my pride, go to a nearby shopping mall, stop by every store and apply for an associate position. Then I would work for as long as I can till the baby is born and save every penny and hopefully it would carry us through the first year after our son will be born. On Sunday night before I was set to put my new plan in motion, I was browsing Houston Chronical local jobs postings and came by an ad for a clerical job at a big manufacturing company. I sent them my resume and went to bed. To my surprise, by the time I woke up I had an invitation to come for an interview from that company. October 31, 2005 was my first day of employment at that company and a beginning of next 15 years of my life.

The company I have got my job at was awesome. Big manufacturer for Energy and Power Distribution industry. The products are amazing, all manufacturing done in US and gratification for your work was huge. I was able to advance from my initial clerical position to a supervisor in a first few years and shortly after I have transitioned to a Project Management role.

I love Project Management. Even though it is crazy and demanding, especially when you work multi-million dollar custom manufacturing and industrial construction projects for big industry players, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Work satisfaction was huge.

I had both of our kinds while working there and the company was nothing but incredibly supportive. People there were like my work family. Not just a cliché, it really felt like it. At the same time, being a mom to 2 boys was very demanding as well and provided me with a constant mommy guilt. At the end of the work day, I often had to cut my meetings short and dash to their school to pick them up form extended care, cook, feed them, take them to their sport practices, trying to squeeze in homework and family time before it is time to go to bed, clean up, finish work I had to abandon earlier at the office, go to bed, and repeat. I know I was not alone, there are so many of us living this life. How to balance work and family the best way is what is constantly on the mind of so many families.

I started to wonder if I have my priorities straight and if putting my focus on my work was a right thing to do. So often I will feel terrible for yelling at my kids in the morning if we leave house 5 minutes late. It would send them to school upset and I will be stressed out early in the morning. “Why did I do it, it is really not that important” I’d think to myself, but still couldn’t stop myself as a pressure to be in the office in time for all my meetings and planned activities was high. I started to daydream from time to time about what would it be like to have more time flexibility and actually be able to pick up my kids from school at 3:15 pm instead of 5 or 6 pm and be done with their homework by the time I would normally be leaving the office. What it would be like to be able to have a dinner cooked and ready before the sports practices will start. And then I would shame myself for thinking that. Because as a modern woman I am supposed to be able to handle my work and my family with ease. But the truth is, I was not. I felt like I am not doing 100% at work when I’d put more time into my family and that I’m falling short at home when I ramp up at work. It became cycle that started to wear me down.

It was at about that time when my parents had asked me to help them to invest some extra funds that they had. While they live in Russia, they were interested to acquire a rental property in US. They did not have enough money to buy a turnkey, so they have asked me to find them a ran down house in my area, fix it and rent it out. This is how I started looking at the Real Estate. Thank you, Mom and Dad!

In 2013 I got myself an agent and started looking for a rental property for my parents. I discovered quickly that houses with investment potential are not that easy to find on the MLS and the search took a while. While touring many houses I had a lot of conversations with my agent and she asked me why wouldn’t I do a few house flips to generate more cash for the rental property and maybe be able to get more than 1 rental in the end. I immediately imagined myself as one of the HGTV shows flippers and the idea was so appealing. I started doing research into Real Estate and was very quickly blown away by the possibilities to create wealth and financial freedom. It looked like a potential solution to my work/family struggle.

I ended up not getting a property from the MLS but got lucky enough to buy a full gut REO on an online auction by the end of 2013. Well, I won the auction in late 2013, for some reason it did not close till late May 2014. And the fun started. I’ve done a full rehab of that 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom house doing so many mistakes in the process… I have to say, doing Project Management for a living had saved me there, and even though the rehab had dragged for 1.5 years I’ve made 28% GP on that flip and was able to avoid short term gain taxes because the rehab took so long to complete. I split the profit with my parents, and we all were ecstatic. We could not wait to do it again.

I was so ready. And then I did NOTHING. Well, I have done a lot of studying and research on the Real Estate. Found Bigger Pockets, Flipping Junkie and other platforms, read books, listened to every Podcast, and even created MLS and Auction searches. But I never put a real work into it. At first, I was assuming that since it was easy to get this 1st property, it will be the same easy to get them any time when I will be ready to buy. I became an expert on Real Estate theories, but I was full of excuses to put them into practice. Marketing and Leads generation had scared me to death. How can I answer my phone if someone would call when I am so busy at work and at home all the time? How can I outsource it while I am just starting and do not have a sizable budget? What if I will not find a good contractor? How am I going to find time to do it perfectly and not fail at my job and at home? After all I am a high achiever, I do everything 100%.

Eventually it became almost depressing. I was failing my parents. After doing 1 successful flip, I just sat on their money and while my wonderful parents were very patient with me and kept telling me that I can do it, they started to say that maybe we should go back to the initial plan and just get them 1 turnkey rental and be done with it. I was crushed. It would be the end of my dream of financial freedom. I could see the light and the path so clearly, but I felt like this path is just going in parallel with my life and has no chance to cross with it.

2017 came in and in August it brought Hurricane Harvey to Texas and to Houston. My husband was in England on a business trip. I was home with kids. We stock up nonperishable food, ice, water, batteries and were prepared for Harvey to come to Houston and to be stuck at home for a week possibly without power. After all we are Houstonians, we are not scared of the hurricanes. Prepared we were not. Our family house that is in 500 years flood plan and had never flooded since it was built in 1971 got 15 inches of water. With a help of my neighbor I had to push my kids on a kayak walking in chest high water to the higher ground. Flag a rescue boat and come back to the house to get a couple of blankets and my 12 year old yellow lab and be dropped off at the end of the street. Get on a dump truck and be taken to our church where we have spent 2 days till our friends were able to get to us. My husband was not able to come back to Houston for 1 week since no planes were landing in Houston and when he came back, we found that his car had totally flooded while sitting at the airport.

But with all of that came the blessings. The day the water came down a crew of people from my work came to our house and had totally gutted it within a few hours. They were awesome! And their help was so welcome. Our friends let us and our dog to stay in their house at no charge till our house was fixed. Another friend had helped us to find an awesome contractor who had fixed our house super quick and we were able to move back in 2 days before Christmas 2017. And guess what? I had so much fun rebuilding our house. I enjoyed it. It came out looking great and we stayed on budget. And once again, it is good to be a Project Manager 😊

Going through Harvey made me realize once again how much I like working on houses. The satisfaction of watching a house to come from a mess to a nice-looking home is huge. So, I started of thinking about starting my flipping and rental business once again. And once again I started to slip into a dreamy world of procrastination.

2018 and 2019 came along and with it came some health issues. In early 2019 I got diagnosed with MS. Multiple Sclerosis. I knew nothing about it besides a name and that we have a bike ride in Houston to raise money for research on this disease. It was scary. In a nutshell, this is when your immune system goes into an overdrive and starts attacking your central nervous system – brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. But again, I am lucky. So far, I have a very mild form, still have a lot of energy (at least most of the time), can walk normal, think straight, and see very well. I am very blessed.

When I realized how blessed I really am, I came to a realization that I can not continue to throw away chances that God is giving me. Life is too short for that. That if I want to start a business that will give me a flexibility to be with my family when they need me and some time to volunteer from time to time, I just need to do it. I do not want to do nothing for another 5-10 years, have my kids grow up and move out, and me thinking back what it could have been… So, after some hard thinking, I came up with a plan and told my husband and my parents that we will be saving every penny we can save for 1 year to create a safety cushion for our family that should last us at least 1-1.5 years. After that I will quit my high paying and highly demanding job and will throw myself into starting my business. Yes, I know, it is not ideal to quit first and then go full time Real Estate. It creates more challenges with credit and financing. But you know what? I am not alone. I have a great supportive husband with an awesome well-paying job and an incredibly good credit. And he is willing to step up when it will be needed. Plus, we are all different. I work great under pressure. Without pressure I relax and go into slumber. So, I need it. And what can create more pressure than putting all my work experiences and newly created business on the line? Something probably can, but not that may things.

The savings plan was put in motion and the date was set for me to quit my job. Mid-May 2020. 1 week before schools will break for the summer. Plans, I love to plan as you can tell 😊 And what happened then? COVID-19 and its shutdowns, massive layoffs everywhere, my husband stable job became not so stable. So, what did we do? We carried through with our plan almost without deviations. I did not quit in mid-May as we had originally planned due to some uncertainties with my husband’s job. But I have quit. In August. We figured that we can only plan so far. At some point we must give it a go and adopt to the challenges that life throws at us.

So now I am starting my business. I am working on it full time.

To keep myself accountable and to create more clarity on what I am doing for myself, I decided to start this blog. I plan to post here every week or two to summarize my goals, strategies, steps and actions taken, and upcoming tasks to complete.

How to purchase a 1st property in 90 Days webinar came in just in time. I am taking on this challenge and will try to document my journey through it in this blog.

Thank you all who had enough patience to read through this post. It is long. But I thought that sharing last 25 years of my life and being honest about my procrastination up to this point may help someone to feel better about themselves.

I welcome all comments, suggestions, and advise.

Thank you,

Elena Strong.

P.S. Please be gentle, I am totally getting out of my comfort zone with this blog and all the sharing 😊