All Forum Posts by: Ashley Harris

I am loving that some have you have flipped houses in the 1800s and that it was a success. I definitely understand they can be money pits, but it is reassuring that it is possible to succeed! 

I appreciate the input everyone!

Hi everyone! I was wondering, what is the oldest house you've flipped? It would be great to see before and after pictures as well if you have them!

Ashley

I also agree with Ed on this one. My husband and I are currently looking at properties to invest in. I've brought up the idea of house hacking before, but my husband isn't really on board. To be honest, the only reason I liked the idea of house hacking is for us to save more to invest in other properties. We have been renting for the past 6 years and have been waiting to purchase our own single family for awhile. We have never been closer than we are currently to buying our own house, having our own yard. I'm not sure either one of us could house hack at this point; buying a house where we still have to deal with people on the other side of the wall, and the extra hassle of also being their landlord.  While it may take us a little bit longer to buy our first investment property, I think we will be much happier owning our own house first, then finding an alternative way to start investing.

Here's a list of my problems: not being able to buy properties with cash so I don't feel I have enough capital to flip, husband goes back and forth with being on board with investing, and our market is going to be in a state we hope to move to by the end of the year. 

As someone just starting out, I would love some inside info!

It looks so gorgeous! What are the wooden floors? 

Although I haven't done my 1st deal yet I have the program Home Designer by Chief Architect that my husband and I have used to create our dream home floor plans. As mentioned above Houzz does have great inspiration.

My husband and I both have doctorate degrees in the healthcare industry. We love what we do, but have spent years going to school and have accumulated so much student debt. While we can still live comfortably, the thought of student loans taking the majority of our income each month for many years is depressing. We have spent years in school and now that we are out, we finally want to live our lives. One of our dreams has been to build our dream home, but we have always felt that we wouldn't have enough money, our debt to income ratio is too high, and that we are working hard to make little progress financially and just life in general.

I have always had a passion for construction and design, so naturally I thought fix and flips would allow me to tap into my creative side while making some extra money. My husband does not share this passion and only sees all the risk without positive outcomes (us losing all the money we currently have). He never really contemplated the idea.

Then on one long road trip, I decided to look up a podcast for real estate investing and house flipping, which brought me to BP. Ever since then I knew this was something I wanted to pursue and have been addicted to BP and its tools, resources, and forums since. 

Although I am just starting out and new to real estate investing and am not close to a deal yet, my husband is finally on board! The reason? I'm becoming educated and am sharing my newfound knowledge with him everyday. He now doesn't think I'm just wildly taking a gander at real estate. What impressed him the most I think and showed him how serious I am, was sharing my in-depth business plan; everything from goals (both personal and business), my target market, strategies for finding and evaluating good deals and financing them, exit strategies in the event of not being able to sell, and a breakdown of how profits will be utilized and handled.

It is a great feeling when your spouse believes in what you do. Good luck to everyone out there trying to convince their better half real estate investing is worth the risk. Sometimes it just takes a little creativity and a realistic business plan to not only highlight your plans for the profits, but also show that you have contemplated the worst case scenario and have plans for handling that situation as well, as it will give them peace of mind.

Ashley

Welcome! I am also a new investor in southern Maine but am still researching and looking for my first property.  Were your two properties multifamily or single family flips? 

Ashley