All Forum Posts by: Diego Santos

Hi Diego, congrats on your success so far! Exciting stuff!

Since you are hoping to put some sweat equity into a property but have little experience with construction work... you should be looking for places that have a solid structure/foundation, but are in need of "cosmetic" updates.

Find the property that needs new floors, paint, trim, doors, and lights... this can all be learned and done personally rather easy and with minimal cost relatively speaking.

I would stay away from properties that need a total gut job, or new wiring, plumbing, siding, roof, windows, etc... this is stuff that should be done by a professional and can get pretty expensive.

Of course, if you have a relationship with a contractor and are comfortable with the expense these things could be an opportunity as well. But I would not try to take on a tremendous amount of large items if you are still gaining the experience!

Also, make sure you have a very specific plan and budget before you start tearing into things... I can tell you from experience that it is very easy to start doing more than you planned and end up going wayyy over budget.

Trevor, thank you for the advice! definitely helpful. I think I ignore many things since I do not have a full scope of what work needs to be done by just looking at a property due to my lack of experience. So, as you suggested, probably keeping things simple at the beginning will make more sense.

Thanks again!

0 Votes

Hello!

My name is Diego, and I live in southwest Texas (~150miles away from San Antonio) and I am new to Real Estate. I got to BiggerPockets by a co-worker and since then, I have been listening to podcasts, reading through forums, etc.

I work on the Robotics industry and I was lucky to get a job out of school where I was traveling 100% of the time (allowing me to live on my company expenses and save 100% of my paychecks). After a few years, I stopped traveling that much, and I was able to save a good amount of cash, this allowed me to acquire my first property on this year (2 duplexes).

At the moment, I am thinking about making a second Investment on this same year, but I am thinking this time on doing a BRRRR. Buying a house, doing a rehab, and renting it. Then I plan to refinance and use the equity to acquire another property.

I want to do a BRRRR because I would like to do part of the rehab myself, I have always been a hands-on person and I like to do work on my own, as well as I think it will be a great opportunity for me to learn more about construction/costs/etc. I am good with tools and have worked with all kind of tools in the past, but I have no experience doing any construction, so I am little unsure on how to start with a BRRRR (or if it is even worth doing it myself).

I am also looking to meet more people on the Real Estate industry and learn as much as possible!

Thank you for your time

2 Votes

All Forum Posts by: Diego Santos

Diego Santos has started 1 posts and replied 2 times.

Post: Hello! New Investor. Looking at next steps, learning, & Networking.

Post: Hello! New Investor. Looking at next steps, learning, & Networking.