Today I wrote a $1000 earnest check! Something I have never done before or learned how to do in school. I remember my mom teaching me how once years ago, but I honestly messed up big time in front of my realtor. He laughed, I laughed, I played it off and just wrote another one, correctly this time after a quick lesson. Embarrassing but it's okay! I won't forget this lesson. Always staying humble.
Anyways, my search for a place started last month but my preparation for this moment started about two years ago. My great friend (also my realtor) and I agreed on my goal on owning real estate but I was nowhere near where I needed to be . I arrived to Hawaii under Air Force Active Duty orders, put in the barracks with a pretty low wage as an E-3 Airman. 22 years old, no college education, a low 600 credit score and with a $14k car loan on Subaru STi (god I miss it).
So of course, sacrifices needed to be made. I sold the STi for $19k, paid off the loan, used the extra $5k to pay off a BestBuy credit card and buy a cheap 1980's BMW, which I knew I could flip after a little fix. This then leaded me to flipping another 5 vehicles! Pretty easy too around a military base but how and why that's done is a topic for another day.
Let me tell you, living in Hawaii and trying to save money is not easy. Food is expensive! Which is what I mostly spend money on. The night life! Bars and clubs in Waikiki on weekends were definitely a no-go for me for countless weeks. Buying nice clothes, buying video games, buying alcohol, all had to stop. Instead I started looking into ways to increase my credit score and save as much money as possible.
My problem was, I couldn't save money knowing I had it in the bank. I thought I was doing well at first but I later caught myself being a hypocrite. So what was the solution? Invest it all into a TSP (military 401k), Roth IRA, REIT's and an online savings account that didn't provide me with a card I could swipe or an app I could easily open up. The key was to continue living paycheck to paycheck per say. My checking account hasn't seen 3 digits in a very long time.
Well fast forward 2 years and I'm finally living off-base with a fellow airman, splitting the rent. With a mattress, a lamp and a desk in my room. No tv, no video games, no unnecessary crap. Meal prepping every week to save food money. Going to the gym on base for free. Living debt free with 11 credit cards! All hacked to give me a crap ton of points for travel or cash-back checks every year! Again, another topic on how I did that later. Sacrificing paid off and I'm still alive, healthy and happy. It all came together and for the better
It was time.
I got together with my realtor, walked into a reputable Mortgage Lender office and proceeded with an awesome Loan Officer. He checked my credit, looked at my assets, my bank statements and got a good feel for who I was. 700k is what he said I could of asked for but yeah, no. I knew what I was looking for and the max I needed was 350k. I made it very clear to them. We were all on the same page and a hour later, I was pre-approved for a VA Loan! Thanked them and walked out.
Then the search process began. I'll keep this short and sweet as I feel I already bored most of you. I found 3 different places, offered the exact amount on one, rejected. Offered 5k more than asking price on the second, rejected. Definitely a sellers market in Hawaii but third time was the charm! Asking price was 333k and I offered 335k, accepted. 2k more? Why offer more?
I knew this was a steal. It's a 2/2/2 Condo, very difficult to find in this area on the island. Local college near by, shopping center near by and military base a couple miles away. Most up for sell only have one bathroom, or one parking stall, but this one had both! Now it isn't completely perfect, it's an upstairs unit and it needs renovation. Luckily, I'm an electrician and my coworkers are all construction workers (i.e. welders, carpenters, plumbers). They owe me favors and already promised to help. Knowing this gave me an advantage to offer a little more since I will be saving on labor costs. This need for renovation assured me most offers were going to be less. Maybe one offer was going to exact asking price, maybe someone had all cash, who knows. What I do know is, there were a total of 11 offers and I was the chosen one :)
To think that I knew how to go about most of this process from sacrificing so much. Countless hours of knowledge through blogs, reading of books, and asking so many questions with the right people. But in all my research, I never once thought of writing a simple check! To think I messed that up today, crazy right but come July 15th, the keys will be in my hands. Renovation will begin and hopefully by New Years, when all is done, it will appraise for much more and I can finally celebrate for a night with all my friends!
Comment down below if you guys would like to see the renovation process, I will try to take pictures of everything! Or if anyone out there has a question they would love to ask me something, please don't hesitate to reach out :)
