All Forum Posts by: Craig Moore

Perfect response and the best reason to be in real estate. You get freedom to follow what you feel passionate about. I will be interested to hear about your first deal. Please make you update us on your progress. Of everything you have posted, the fact that you are ok living a frugal life, is the most powerful gift you have. Too many young people blow hundreds at the bar, on cars, clothing, etc. Much respect to you my friend. Good luck!

Well, here's the thing: you can alter the amount of money coming in, or alter the amount of money going out, to suit your particular needs. As I said, I know people who are living on $1500/month with no job. Personally, I don't think they live comfortably, but that's using my criteria of lots of rainy-day savings, good health coverage, ability to eat at any restaurant I want without looking up my banking balance first. It works for them. I am a fairly frugal person but I grew up really poor and there are certain things that are deal-breakers for me: junk cars that leave me on the side of the road, struggling to pay utilities, not being able to go to the doctor (actually, I have VA coverage so that doesn't really count), not being able to properly care for my dog. Just as examples.

If you get one unit a year between now and 30, and keep working, you are probably going to have a reasonably impressive portfolio in 7 years. But if you are really doing it, you are going to eat a lot of Ramen Noodles along the way. If you really want the business to support you to where having a job is optional, all of the "profits" from the business need to be reinvested for a certain amount of time. If you plan on drawing off the money you make from anything you pick up as you go, you're probably not going to live off your acquisitions in 7 years. 

@Craig MooreI think your goal of one property per year is a reasonable. I have read some other people starting out that have crazy high goals. I am not sure with that goal you will retire at 30, but maybe if you keep going you could retire at 35. Most likely you will not want to retire at 30. Although it sounds good today, you will want to be doing something even if it is actively building your rental business. I wouldn't worry about retirement today, because you will know the right choice when the time comes. It is great that you are frugal and willing to save your money. 

As far as your numbers specifically. You are saying you could live off $12-$15K per month. I do not think buying one property per year for 7 years will get you there. That will mean that each property will need to cash flow around $2000 per month. Even if each property is a 4-plex, that is $500 per door. That is going to be challenging. 

I guess to summarize, I think one property per year is a good goal, but I would move out my retirement plans. You could alternately increase the number of properties per year, but I am a firm believer in keeping goals achievable. I would start with one property, then see how it goes. Revise your goals each year. You may find after two years, you change your goal to 3 or 4 properties a year. It is hard to say, because so many factors play into this.

@JD Martinsuggested some people live comfortable off $1500 per month.  @Craig Moore estimates he'll want $12K-15K per month.  Someone has been reading The 10X Rule book? 

My recommendation is to set small and achievable goals.  Do your homework, analyze literally 50 deals in detail and rank the top 10 before you make your first offer.  

To be successful in real estate takes a lot of work.  If you are driven by "I want to retire because I don't want to work", it might not be right for you.  But if you're willing to work hard you can do it!

Best wishes.

i would assume that with such an aggressive purchasing plan that you intend to use the BRRRR method that is popular on here. One issue that you may run into is the refinance of small multis. Because they are not as popular as SFR and not necessarily based off rents in appraisal that it can be hard to find comps. So I think the appraisals may be hit or miss.

It's possible, sure. There's a ton of questions to be asked and answered in this post. 

Where are you getting the money between now and then? Are you going to be reinvesting the cash flow for the next 7 years? If so, you should be buying more properties later in process not a flat line of investing. What's your lifestyle like and are you willing to sacrifice in the beginning to live off less? Why stop working at 30? Keeping a source of income going that will allow you to reinvest your real estate profits will only get you to a wealthy state sooner. You don't have to stay at the job your at now, but I wouldn't consider not having any source of income other than the properties you acquire between now and 30. 

How many units do you have so far? 

Everyone's idea of comfort is different. I know people that live "comfortably" off $1500 per month income, but that wouldn't be me.