How I went from a Renter's Mindset to an Investor

A Renter’s Mind-Set

I grew up in a family of below-average means. The mentality in our family was to “Make Ends Meet,” often sacrificing some the spoils in life just to ensure that our basic necessities were take care of. When I was just 3 years old, my parents separated. From that moment, until the time I was 31 years old, I lived in a place that belonged to someone else. My mother, struggling to raise 2 children on 1 salary & minimal child support, worked to make sure that we lived in a good school district & a safe neighborhood. However, in order to do this, it meant that she had to adapt the “Renter’s Mentality.” In those 28 years, I lived in SFH’s that we rented, an apartment that we rented & even a family member’s home where we paid monthly rent. And as an adult, I rented a room from a friend who had just purchased a property & then later rented space from another friend, whose parents were our landlords. Well into my late 20’s the idea of owning a home of my own was something that I couldn’t even fathom. My mentality was molded to believe that I would always find a place with rent that I could afford, in an area where I wanted to live & do my best to “Make Ends Meet.”

Educating Myself

In the mid-2000’s, I began to read books about Real Estate & Real Estate Investing. (The Automatic Millionaire, Rich Dad Poor Dad, etc...)Why the sudden interest? Well, you I was engaged to be married & when the idea of us buying a home came up, I froze. I couldn’t image that I would own my home, I couldn’t imagine what it would take for me to be approved for a mortgage or even worry about the up-keep. So, what was I going to do? So, I decided to start learning about Real Estate. How could other friends of mine buy a home & what would it take for me to buy a home. It didn’t take long for me to commit to the fact that 1) YES!! I did want to buy a home ( had to get rid of the Renter’s Mentality) and 2) I wanted more than that. My wife & I settled on our first home in Aug 2006, a few weeks before our wedding. That settlement was an exciting time for us. We bought a 3 BR 2 ½ BA Townhouse in a nice area of Southern New Jersey. But now I had the bug…

Get out there and DO IT!

I’ve always been good with numbers & spreadsheets, so after a bit of education I realized that the numbers really made sense to me. In 2008, we purchased a property to Flip. It was an extremely volatile time in the marked, but as J. Paul Getty once said “Buy when everyone else is selling…”. We partnered with a friend on the deal & each made a little bit of money. But the important this is that WE WERE IN THE GAME. We purchased a 3-Unit in 2010, that we still own and operate today, a 2-Unit in 2011 where we used the B-R-R-R-R method (long before I ever knew that it was called that). We bought another 2-Unit in 2014 & recently moved into a SFH only to rent out that original townhouse that I mentioned earlier.

Even if you are crawling, you are moving light-years fasted than the person who is on the couch.

I am proud of where we are today. And, as I have recently decided to move into Real Estate Investing as my full time career, I know that this would have never been possible without getting in the game. The Bigger Pockets forums are loaded with many great investors who are killing it every day (25 Flips per year, owning over 1,000 units, etc…) and all of those stories are a great inspiration to me. But I want you to know that you can do it & you can do it at your pace. If your pace is to buy a property every year or every-other year, DO IT. First, get your mindset straight & second, Get In The Game!

I hope you enjoyed my first post & look forward to sharing my experiences & education along this great journey.