All Forum Posts by: Arianne L.

@Samara Vasquez Thank you! And yes looking forward to meeting you at Flip Hacking Live! We should have dinner while we're both there :) I'll message you

@Steven Pratt We spent 6 months submitting offers, getting rejected many times, looking at lots of properties. We actually went under contract on a 4plex but it didn't appraise (market was still soft then) so we couldn't close on it. We worked with a realtor for the first few offers but we were just a little unlucky w/ the realtors we chose. So I ended up getting my license. When I got my license I would just email offers. That's really not ideal. Ideally you want to call the other realtor, build and establish rapport, get a feel for what the seller may be thinking is (are there are other offers? what terms would make your offer more attractive for the seller? it's not just about price, its also about terms), then adjust your plan for offers accordingly, then email your offer. 

@Jordan Yee Yes i go to the local REIA Professional Investors Guild. I think the pensacola chapter meeting was yesterday but there is a FWB chapter meeting next Tuesday.

@Brandon Diaz I think first listen to a lot of the BP podcasts you'll get a feel for the many strategies (there's more to it than rentals vs flips). You have a reasonable paying job that you can leverage. I think figure out what exactly you want to focus on and FOCUS on it. If I didn't have family overseas I probably wouldn't have flipped houses to quit my job fast. I think it really depends on your situation, your goals and what you like doing.

@Jerry Padilla has done all of our loans the last several years. He's great! He does delayed financing exemption also. 

@Lakshmi Nikitha Duggirala Yes we had enough for a 6 month hold, rehab funds to pay for contracts before draws, and personal reserves

@Allan Smith At the beginning of our (other) careers we each made 60k starting out. At the end of our (other) careers each of us approached the 6 figure mark. We had a very high savings rate (only spent 2k or less a month). 

We both started with nothing (well, Chris had UFL scholarships, I didn't but worked throughout college) and then went to school for reasonable careers. And both worked hard and smart to get our raises over the years. 

As far as return on investment in my career though,

I had 5ish yrs of schooling, cost 100k in tuition, and 5 years of time. I worked throughout that's why my debt was only 50k. If I had instead worked a 30-40k entry level job for 5 years I would've had a 100k net worth instead of 50k of debt.

I can't say I regret going to college. Going through all those experiences helped me become who I am today, helped me meet my amazing husband, and I've met amazing lifelong friends throughout grad school. But, #s wise, I really wasn't better off having a good paying w-2 job in my opinion. If anything the quitting process took a lot longer cause the golden handcuffs were stronger

@Jim Kittridge I took a hard look at my why. It was mainly that my chosen career did not allow the freedom to visit family overseas. We could've focused on rentals too. But at the time our 3rd purchase just fit the flip model more (it needed 20k work). Whereas the delayed financing model is best if the house needs only the minimal amount of rehab, cause you can't pull the rehab money out for 6 months. Anyway, w/ flips I realized I could replace my active income (old career) w/ a more flexible active income (flipping houses) so we did and I quit my job.

@Alexia Williams It's where we live Fort Walton Beach FL

@Eric Guerra Wow congrats on those 3 rentals and doing that with a 70 hr/wk job that is pretty awesome! That's a good amount of cashflow for the investment too. 

Regarding going after 20-25 units here are a few different ways you could go about financing that

1) Find sellers who are interested in selling via seller financing. A lot of the older landlords are open to this since they still like getting the passive income every month, but don't want to deal with the management anymore.

2) Partner with another investor who the bank would lend to. 50% of something is more than 0% of everything

3) Buy with hard money / bridge loan first (the downside is these are higher interest), then refinance into a lower interest loan

4) Refinance the rentals you have now. I'm guessing you have a lot of equity in them, and use that money as a downpayment on the 20-25 units.

When you said they bank won't lend cause they're on a lease, do you mean the 3 rentals you own? do they or do they not have a lease? 

And yes I can see that just some laser focus from you will get you to financial independence very soon! You and your wife can do it!

@Satya N. Our team members are all local. We have

Lead Specialist/Office Manager - She answers all incoming calls and website leads and sets appointments for our Acquisitions Rep. She also does other admin tasks

Acquistions Rep - He goes to all the seller appointments and negotiates contracts for us

Project Coordinator - He helps manage all the renovations we do and all the contractors we work with

Sales Specialist - He sells the contracts/properties. Takes the properties from our contract to the sale closing (whether its a flip or wholesale)

We learned how to do this from our mastermind group 7 Figure Flipping so the credit should really go to the group.

@Ana Colon You got this! Just make a plan, take one step at a time and one day you'll be amazed at how far you've gotten.

@Alejandro Chavarria that's pretty awesome!!! Good on you for living your passion while investing in real estate :). Have an extra serving of some good halo halo for me :)

@Joy Jones Family comes first. I think its great that you're prioritizing them and spending time with them. We did those things separately. We bought some rentals and almost fell in to flipping on the 3rd property. I think pick what you want to FOCUS on first. If you want to focus on flips, do that. If you want to focus on rentals, do that. 

If you're looking to replace active income, flipping houses will do that faster than rentals will

If you're looking to generate passive income, flipping houses won't really do that (though if you make it a business it can but it'll take a few years). If your main goal is passive income I would say focus on rentals.

@Asad Bajwa the mastermind I'm part of is called 7 Figure Flipping. I can message you more details about it. On page 3 I posted a bp marketplace post about an event called Flip Hacking Live where a lot of the members from that mastermind are presenting and attending

@David Zheng Thanks! I've been following your success too. Very impressive! :D. As far as the rough breakdown about 70% of the income is flips, 30% wholesales. We always go under contract with the intent to purchase so most of our income comes from flips.  Flips do take more time though and another team member (project manager) . We averaged 4 months close to close last yr, this year I think we'll hit our goal of average 3 months close to close. The wholesales are much faster, but we also have smaller profit.

The rentals we just acquired in the last couple of months but the next year projections are 60-80k/yr and wide range depends on our plan execution and how fast we turn the units.

@Lakshmi Nikitha Duggirala Sure, we work with a nationwide hard money lender and we are at 9.5% annualized. 

@David Charles Perez Salamat! :)   If I can do it so can you! Draw on your 'why' when the going gets tough and keep pushing through!

@Jack Bobeck You have an awesome story Jack. Glad to see that you've bounced back! A lot of the people I look up to have stories like yours. They suffered in the last downturn but they didn't quit. The only people who lose are the ones who quit :). I respect you and them a lot! And you have lots of niche strategies too those are very interesting. Thank you!

@Elenis Camargo We are big savers. Our first properties we bought with our own cash (we saved up 70k or so before we closed on our first) then used the delayed financing strategy to recycle that capital (see the rental link on my first post for details). Then as we grew we've started working with passive investors and hard money lenders who fund most of our deals. All of the business operating capital is still our cash though, we like to operate from a strong cash position to mitigate risk and make decisions from a position of power. 

@Isaac A. If you mean my formal college education. I had a BA in Psych and Education and a Masters in Speech Language Pathology. I think the 5-6 years of learning how to research and document helped me research and document processes in the real estate investing industry. 

If you mean formal real estate education. Biggerpockets helped us compile a lot of information and learn the fundamentals. BP showed us all the different strategies we could apply in real estate investing and helped us choose one to start.

Then, going to Flip Hacking Live event was integral to our growth. We met people who were already in the spot we're at now and they showed us how they got there. Now, we're still part of a mastermind group that helps us grow and continue getting better. We would not be where we're at without these people.  We had lots of struggles along so its definitely not easy but having a group of people who are going through the struggles and wins with you makes for an amazing journey :). 

Here's a biggerpockets marketplace post about the Flip Hacking Live event this coming October https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/61...

@Justin Williams @William Allen thanks for putting this awesome event together! :) 

@Drew Slew We do a lot of fix and flips and for those its a combination of our cash, hard money, and private investors. For our rentals the amazing @Jerry Padilla managed to get 6 conventional loans closed totaling more than $1M. I wish I know how to explain how he did all I know is its according to fannie/freddie guidelines and other lenders don't know how to do it but he does!

@Lakshmi Nikitha Duggirala For our first flip, we used our money for the purchase price 72k and had a private investor (was a coworker) to fund 30k for the renovations. For that they got a double digit annualized interest rate. 

Now, we use a combination of our own funds, private investors and hard money. If you are starting out, you can 1)  partner with someone who does have the money and split profits 2) partner with someone who has some of the money and also work with a hard money lender 3) save enough for hard money. For hard money we get them to fund 90% of purchase price 100% of rehab. So all we're out of pocket is 10% of purchase price plus closing costs. 

@Joseph M. Yes I was on show 233 (link in my signature). The business as it stands now only requires 4-5 hours of my input to keep it running. If I leave for a personal or business trip I just check in minimally.

But we are still growing, so I typically spend 20-30 hours or so on growing the flipping and wholesaling side. And about 10 hours a week on growing the multifamily side. I also actually really enjoy learning and getting to know people now so some of my 'leisure' time is spent on learning and networking... Not sure if that's what you wanted to hear but that's what I do. lol.

@Frankie Woods Yes we are savers so we still save and reinvest everything :) 

@Matt P. It's possible! I came from a not very well off background. I remember walking 45 minutes to save 10 cents (6 pesos) for bus fare just a little over a decade ago. 

Regarding earning potential. That's actually something I love about what we're able to do now. We have a 27-28 yr old team member who has a high school diploma and we'll be paying them more than what I made starting out with a masters degree. 

I love being able to provide opportunities that I thought I couldn't provide myself just a few short years ago. We enjoy teaching our team members how we got to where we are - we're helping them develop habits of saving and investing :). 

It's really not about what you make, it's about how much you save/keep. We spend what we need without sacrificing happiness. And we invest the rest.

@Taran Sousa Great question! My top 3 challenges in the beginning were 

1. Not having enough confidence in myself 

2. Learning how I could use my strengths to shore up my weaknesses (in the beginning I was super shy and wouldn't talk to people) 

3. Knowing how to lead and manage a team 

These 3 are still a work in progress by the way so I am still taking steps each day to work on them

@Lizzie Jordan The wholesaling skillset is marketing and sales. Make sure you read some good sales books like Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

@Matt P. Chris and I are huge savers. When we started (and til now), our monthly expenses were always under $2,000 a month. Chris and I also had about $20k in savings from working jobs throughout undergrad and grad school that went towards the debt after we got married. That allowed us to save at a rapid pace, pay off our debt, and save funds to start investing. After taxes, we were able to save 5k or so a month towards building wealth.  

We had about 70k or so saved up when we closed on the first property in 2015. We bought the first 2 properties cash and used delayed financing exemption to recycle our funds for the first 3 properties (see this bp post for details on how)

You don't necessarily have to start with your own cash. You could partner with someone else who has the money, use hard money in combination with partnering, etc. But since Chris and I are very conservative in nature, we saved up a good sized war chest and put our hard earned money to the test first. Now, we have other investors who invest with us so its not all our money anymore. 

@Adam M. Yes, we end up buying at or less than the 70% rule typically. That's cause we have a whole team dedicated to finding deals and we spend 5 figures in marketing expenses a month. It took time, hard work and capital to get the business running but now its running effectively.

Here is our budget for year 1 ownership. This doesn't include $75k we have in our operating account budgeted to turn 8 non-renovated units as they come available (new cabinets, countertops, flooring, paint, fixtures). We are also budgeting for up to 15% vacancy this first year as we turn units.

@Joseph Druther God is amazing. All of these things that happened couldn't have happened by chance. God's guidance and favor got us here that's for sure! We didn't know we'd get here when we started... but now He's allowed us to provide for others what we thought we couldn't provide for ourselves. 

Very blessed that He introduced us to great friends like You and Liz to go on this journey with!

And yeah you guys got this! I'm giving you a 1 year time limit starting today ;)  Ready... set... go!

@Account Closed

@Jay Hinrichs Thank you!
By "be the bank" do you mean seller financing or just lending in general? Definitely looking into it. We wholesaled a property recently that I would've been a great buy and we could've seller financed on the sale. Looking into that now!

I wanna be like you one day :). I think a Hero's Home is a great cause. Thank you for thinking of the real heroes we have in this country. One of our longer term goals is to start non profit and create a self-sustainable community for people with special needs :D