All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Jay Hinrichs The excavation company has been in the back of my mind for awhile now so its nice to see thats where your mind went when you saw I can run trackhoes. I also qualify for a lot of grants and loans through the V.A. which is why it feels like I am treading water working for someone else. I have found a program locally so I will start enrollment with the G.I. bill and I have talked to lenders who will qualify my GI bill money as income. So I appreciate everyone's advice and right now the plan is 

-Finish up my two weeks at work

-Enroll in school using the G.I. bill to supplement that income

-Use my free time during school to focus on current properties and make some money from a side business

Ill make a post for anyone who cares to see how it all turns out for me in 3 months!

-Best Wishes,

Bryan

@Jake Hart You are absolutely right, just frustrated with trading time for money when I want to be with my wife and kids more. We follow a very tight monthly budget which is why I have been able to support my family on 16 bucks an hour and have two properties. My wife stays home with the kids and we want to keep it that way. In my mind I was thinking if I sold one of the houses I would be able to use the money to put 25% down on 2 others local to me now. @Karla Simmons After all the advice from tonight I am going to enroll in a home inspector certification program here in N.C. so I will replace my income with the G.I. Bill and transition into a career in real estate. 

haha thanks @Bruce Woodruff well hopefully that doesn't happen but if you see me on the side of the highway next year just throw me a dollar

Thanks @William Hochstedler and also thank you to everyone who has contributed. It was half existential crisis of having another kid and half I want to pivot to real estate full time in some capacity so I will definitely be getting another job but in real estate. I appreciate all the older members who are probably family men as well telling me this is not the right move financially, being in a new town and not having anyone around to seek guidance from it is nice to get honest advice here.

-Bryan

@Jonathan Greene Thank you for the Peter to Paul analogy to put things in perspective. I guess I looked at the numbers and am able to step away from working right now even though it will be tight. Maybe career change to a field within real estate? Finding out we were expecting our 3rd just kind of made me want to step away and spend time together as a family so maybe this will be a sabbatical. 

Also I feel like I was painted as lying about mortgages or in a bad light, I know I have gotten very lucky my first two deals and they all won't be this easy but here ya go so I don't get blackballed. 

@Scott M. Maybe I am looking at it differently but worst case scenario the tenants steal all my appliances and I have to replace every piece of drywall in the house and am forced to sell while still pocketing close to a quarter of a million dollars so I would say "complete disaster for you, my wife, your two kids, and the 3rd on the way" is a bit of an exaggeration. 

Thanks @John Underwood and @Vinay Kolluru I had thought the HELOC route was going to be the safest bet but kind of wanting to set things in motion faster is what had me thinking about selling. @Nathan Gesner Thank you for the link to study up on cashflow and I absolutely will but the mortgage after everything including insurance on my ogden property is $350.00 even, I had set aside a lot of money while in the Army and put way too much down on the house initially when I purchased but it has worked out well for me. Current mortgage for my other house is 448.00. Is it common practice to factor in maintenance work that may or may not come up into "cash flow" if I already have cash reserves set aside? And I don't want to run equipment or cook because at this point in my life I don't have to and am not in a position financially to where I need to have a job. Also I have the G.I. bill so if I ever needed an extra 2k a month I could just go to school and still have time to focus on real estate. 

Thanks,

Bryan

Hello Fellow BPers,

Just need some reassurance, constructive criticism, or to be told I'm an idiot.

Currently I own 2 rental properties, here are the breakdowns,

3Bd, 1 Ba Located in Ogden Utah:

Market Value 320k

Amount left on loan 59k

Currently rented and cash flowing 1200 a month

2Bd, 1 Ba Located in Wake County North Carolina:

Market Value 185k

Amount left on loan 105k

Cashflow 800 a month

Currently living in North Carolina and plan on staying here, sick and tired of making 16 bucks an hour cooking, I have 2 kids and just found out we are having a 3rd so I put my two weeks in and want to dive more into real estate. I know how to run heavy construction equipment and cook at a high level so I can get another job tomorrow if I need to but I want to make a run at real estate full time. My question is if you were me would you sell my Utah house and take the roughly 250k and buy more rentals in North Carolina? Utilize a HELOC? Sell both houses? I am open to anything and everything as far as ideas go. I have done all the renovations to both properties myself and plan on doing all the renovations myself until it doesn't make sense anymore. Thanks in advance I'm just in a limbo and need some numbers to reassure me I can do this.

-Bryan

@Alan DeRossett I see you are from Thousand Oaks, I grew up in Moorpark and loved my childhood but once it came time for me to get married, have a family, and purchase a home I quickly up and left to Utah, followed by my parents and brothers who are all high earners, because financially and politically California isn't for me. Having gone back recently to visit friends (who are all mid 20 somethings with families of their own) and seeing them renting rooms from their parents where they live with their wives and children I suspect in the next 5 years there will be a mass exodus of young families. From my narrow point of view of Ventura County millennials that aren't in tech or a liberal waitress, any young person with a good head on their shoulders will be packing up and leaving soon. 

Hey Jake,

Moving from Utah earlier this year where the market is even crazier due to spillover from California and Colorado I have found North Carolina much easier to find deals in. Maybe I am getting lucky, or maybe I am missing something but I have found some deals that were not the right fit for me but might be for you or other Bigger Pockets members. Shoot me a DM and I will pass on any deals that I find, I am mainly talking about Knightdale/Wake County.

-Bryan