All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

@Andrew Perkins I have an illness that lends itself to lead me toward depression. I do not let that define me. As I have aged and matured I have learned to look for happiness and positivity every day.

I owned bed and breakfasts where I had total freedom and control of my work schedule and became burnt out and was not happy.

I began working as a social worker and realized I was happier and much more fulfilled helping others than being free in my former role as a small business owner.

Now, I am investing in real estate to reach financial freedom so I can “retire” from my day job. I do find happiness in both the real estate investments and the social work. I love interacting with my tenants and handling day to day operations. I enjoy searching for new deals and making them happen. I also achieve satisfaction and happiness interacting with my clients daily.

There’s a happy medium for me. I won’t look back once I can trigger my retirement but I do believe you can find some form of happiness from real estate investment.

@Frank Rubino Plan on going with my team.

@Patrick M. I’m concerned about losing the fees too. While 1.9% is reasonable compared to many credit card transaction fees I don’t want to lose hundreds-thousands of dollars a year potentially.

Following this thread.

@Geoff Pettis I’m still starting out, only 10 doors but have keys. I’m about to have two code locks one already for a basement door and one for a laundry door that the neighbors are using my laundry machines and annoying my tenants so I’m going to lock them out.

I bought a key box that came with about 200 labels and have labeled the spare keys so I know what goes where but if someone were to break in and steal the box they wouldn’t have access to the keys as well as everyone’s addresses.

If I had better technology I’d use it, but for now this is standard for my location.

@John Bradley For years I have hacked around in an old version of Quickbooks with no knowledge of how to use it. I finally upgraded my computer and joined for the online version of it. I believe it’s $12.99 a month and I have all my bank accounts in it. I print out a profit loss for my accountant each year.

Now that I have 10 doors I would a bookkeeper to properly set up the accounts in it and teach me how to use it.

If you can find a bookkeeper to set it up for you and then you do the entry work that’s cheap and have the bookkeeper touch it up periodically.

If you can afford the bookkeeper for the whole thing, maybe. I’m still cutting costs.

@Candice Menard I would imagine being outside the city limits you are fine but you check to see how you are zoned on your tax card, likely sent out with your tax bill, if you’re zoned at all, and then check with the city zoning ordinances to see if there is anything prohibiting this.

I would imagine with only 2-3 unrelated people you would not have a problem.

I am also starting to find that with many of the cities zoning laws I have been looking for you can put in the city, state, zoning laws, into google and they come up now. This may not be true everywhere but it is in my state with towns of only 500 people.

@David Banker I'd owned 3 investment properties 15 years ago 2 multis and a SFH and gotten burned on all 3. The multis in a partnership that went horribly wrong and the SFH just didn't go well.

Last year I just jumped in head first and now own 10 doors. My newest 3 plex will involve a lot of repairs, I’m not handy but I can handle contractors with the best of them.

I've read dozens of books, websites, listened to podcasts, read the forums here religiously for 2 years, etc. I think you just have to get your feet wet snd do it! If you want to start small buy a SFH. If you don't feel comfortable managing yourself, find s good enough deal that you can hire management.

Don’t let fear stop you! You can do this!

@Ren Navarro Figure out What you want to buy, SFH, duplex, multi, etc. Figure out your Why, why you want to invest, cash flow, appreciation, early retirement, to become a millionaire, etc. Figure out How you're going to make it happen. How you will get your first deal, FHA live in 3.5% down payment, conventional mortgage, partnership, bank of mom and dad, etc.

Then figure out where you want to invest. And build your team. Realtor, lenders, property managers. If you’re managing it close to where you live you’ll need to find your own contractors, plumbers, electricians, lawn care, snow removal, etc.

Then start shopping and analyzing your deals with the Rental Calculator on BiggerPockets! Well actually start analyzing deals right away because the more you analyze practice deals the better you’ll get at it and the faster you’re going to be able to find the good ones.

@Gin Andrew I'm going to sell my SFH that's got high appreciation because I've got a big project I want to get into and a HELOC or Refi won't give me enough money and would strap my DTI ratio if I needed to borrow more because I've got a low paying job.

However in your case if you are trying to build a portfolio of rentals I'd either take the HELOC or BRRRR and buy another rental type house that is in a quiet neighborhood and live there 3 years this time to qualify for the 2 out of 5 years snd do it again and move and buy another or a small multi if you could handle it off a couple years.

Then when you get ready to buy a more permanent house you can do that and save up for the next rental.

@Heather Rodden I bought a SFH before my market popped and have been going back and forth about selling it. It would take about 15 years to generate the rent that I could make selling it now. My partner finally said to me you need money for your next investment (I want to do something substantially larger) and a lot could happen in 15 years. You should just sell it.

If you can 1031 them into something that will profit more perhaps you should just sell them now if your rental base is declining and you could make better cash flow elsewhere.

Not every “starter portfolio” is meant to be kept forever, but rather meant to be a beginning point to teach us the ropes and get us into a larger, or bigger market.