All Forum Posts by: Chris Allen

So I am about to become a new Dad! My wife and I have a baby boy due end of June 2022 and I am wanting to get some advice as a new parent as to what are some of the ways that you all have prepared for your kids future?

I always loved the idea that Brandon Turner shared to buy a property for each kid and try and have it paid off by the time they are 18. So while I would like to try and do that also, I wanted to get any other recommendations or stories of what you all have done.

- Simple Savings Account or a CD?

- Mutual or Index Fund? 

- Whole Life or a IUL?

- Crypto, Gold, etc..? 

- Box Buried in the back yard?

Would love any input @Mindy Jensen @Scott Trench

 Hi there Anna, I am sorry to hear about your loss. 

I think Scott E. Was spot on in what he said, so I'll try and just tell you what I've done and maybe give you another option to think about. 

- I purchased my duplex with FHA, fixed up the inside on both sides, and refinanced a year later into a conventional mortgage. While I wasn't able to pull all my money back out, I was able to free up my FHA to use again, and dropped my PMI.

- If you decide to go with option A, you could look into FHA 203(k) loan if you want to buy a "fixer-upper". Otherwise, buying a single family and renting out rooms or a garage apartment/ADU would be a good option as well.

- Another option would be to buy a "vacation home" and run it as a STR. I purchased a cabin in Tennessee for 10% down, and manage it from Texas. I work as a Travel ICU nurse as well, so i can attest that it is very doable to manage remotely.

- I would also consider looking to purchase investment properties in other markets where you may be ablw to get more bang for your buck. Read David Greene Long Distance Real Estate Investing.

 Hey there Ryan, I'm originally from Tyler (went to school I'm Winona). I'm a travel nurse and have seen several assignments in Tyler, so I think that's a great idea to do mid term rentals there. I have considered buying there myself since all the hospitals and colleges are pretty close to each other. 

I also own a cabin out in the Smoky's, so feel free to ask any questions! 

@Emily Lopez

My sister and BIL had moved a manufactured home onto some land and did what you mentioned, renting out the mobile home and now selling it with half of the land. It has worked well for their specific situation and has been comfortable for them, but most of the value has come from the land appreciation. So it "CAN" be a way to start, and could certainly make you money down the road; but it likely wouldn't  bring you any "return" or decrease your living cost significantly. 

But I would say that regardless of what advice you get here, you need to balance that with what is best for you and your kids. We could tell you to buy a house or a duplex, rent out bedrooms/units, and get started that way; but if that is not something you and your kids would be comfortable with; I think your idea of land and a mobile home is an affordable way to get started. 

As far as moving forward, I would really start to network, go to meet-up's, educate, and really dial in what your goals are. 

-Are you wanting to quit nursing altogether and willing to be active in another form of income? (Wholesale/flip/Agent,AirBNB/Co-Host/Arbitrage)

- Are you just wanting to invest what you can, grow steadily and have something to retire on in 20yr and pass down to your kids? (Single Family/Multi Family rentals/BRRRR/etc..)

- Are you wanting to do something "bigger", replace nursing? (Commercial/Large Multi/Syndication/etc...)

Hey there @Emily Lopez, congrats on finding BP and kudos to you being a nurse AND a single mom of 4! 

In order to try and help, what are your goals and/or what are you looking to do? Are you looking to buy your first property? House Hack? Wholesale? Etc..?

@Rebecca Mocan

Fellow RN here as well, congrats on everything!

I agree with everything that @Rodney Sums said with a little bit of a caveat. 

- I currently self manage, while I only have two long term tenants and an AirBNB, I have had no difficulty so far in self managing. I find the savings and experience well worth it. I will definitely get a PM in the future, but would prefer to self manage the first few while I scale. If you honestly have no desire to self manage, 100% hire a PM and it will make it much less stressful on you!

-Make sure you know what your goals are and focus in on one thing to get there. Don't fall into the "shiny object" syndrome. 

- Don't be afraid to partner. 

- Network

 Yeah, during that time my GF (wife now) was living about 2 hrs away. So when she did come into town to visit, there were multiple times we ate dinner on the stairs because I did not have any furniture! Literally the only thing I had was my bed, dresser, a white fold up table, and a reclining lawn chair in my living room haha. 

@Jesse Rodriguez 

I completely understand you! I am a nurse as well and purchased my first property (HH duplex) end of 2019. I did all of the renovations on the first half of my duplex (replaced flooring, subfloor replacement under toilet, toilet replacement, counters, sink, backsplash, paint). Needless to say, I lived in a "construction zone" for about 6 months. During that time, I also bought another house as a BRRRR but hired out more of the work for that. When I moved into the other half I hired out flooring and paint so I could at least move in and be comfortable. The counters, backsplash, and light fixtures were all things that I didn't mind doing in my free time.

I had decided that there are a lot of things I do not want to do and I now WILL NOT do them. There are a few construction type things I actually like to do and I know I do this as a WANT and not that I need to do. Your time as a nurse is likely worth more/hr than a lot of the projects you will hire out. If you pick up an OT shift, someone else can be doing your project for you and probably do it faster and way better haha. 

@Rik Hunter I am sorry to hear that about your "failed" MTR for travel nurses. What are the details of your unit? Is it in Chattanooga or where is it located?

I am a travel nurse as well, and honestly $1650/mo for a furnished rental sounds really low. Most places I have been, you will be hard pressed to find much under $2500. On some of the travel nurse pages I am apart of, I see a lot of nurses who either 1) have not traveled long, or 2) have never owned a property expect to pay "just over" market rent. Where furnished rentals should rent out for about 1.5x the market rent. 

I know that contracts in TN are usually pretty low to start with, but one option you could look into if you already have the property furnished, is maybe see about renting out the individual rooms to travel nurses compared to the entire property. Or if you are in the right location in Chatt, then just run it as an STR?

@Jesse Rodriguez I will share what I have done as we are in pretty similar positions, I house hack my duplex as well and am currently a travel nurse. While my goal is more towards cash flow at the moment, I will tell you what I have done and why, as well as what I think you may consider. 

Since my goas is cash flow, I decided to take advantage of my increased travel nurse income and utilize my second home loan to purchase a vacation home in the Smoky Mountains in TN, this has been a great investment in both cash flow and appreciation while not taking a massive amount of time to manage (once you have good systems and teams in place). Along with the vacation home, I also purchased two BRRRR's that I plan to turn into STR's for travel nurses once complete. One BRRRR I partnered with so I didn't have to do the work, I just secured the financing, the other I am doing all my self. I can tell you the one I partnered with has been much easier and takes up nearly zero of my time, the other is a pain at times, especially since I am now out of state traveling.

While you say you want appreciation more than cash flow, what is your "time and monetary commitment" for this? Since you are about to have an even better w2, I think you should at least consider locking in what low interest, long term conventional financing you can (second home STR, additional MFR House hack, etc...). Like others have said, I don't think buying in every market you travel to is a good idea unless you are just looking to do travel nurse rentals and don't mind self managing. But you could look to take the additional income to partner with others, or just go put 20-25% down on a >B multi family.

Feel free to reach out!