All Forum Posts by: Ethan Lee

I just moved to Jacksonville and got on their list about a month ago! Hopefully I will in the future. 

If you search for Jax Freedom REI, I am on their buyer's list and they send dozens of Jacksonville properties a month. You can connect with them through their website I'm sure.

 Not sure if you read through all of the other responses, but the rental income has given me the freedom to pursue real estate full time, it doesn't necessarily give us enough to live on or enough to be considered "financially independent." But it's close. Here is a summary of my situation and how I've made it possible:

1. Very frugal lifestyle i.e.. bare minimum expenses, no children or pets, high deductible insurances, completely on board wife

2. No/minimal housing expense - blessed to have free housing for a few months in a relative's second home and will be moving into a live in flip bought with a relative's investment cash, so no payment there yet. PITI on our house would be below $500 a month anyway because we are fine living in an inexpensive house as we work on it.

3. Income from my wife's job

4. Income from wedding photography business

5. We have built up significant savings to keep us going for over a year with our lifestyle if necessary

6. I am not retiring at 24, but made the decision/risk to go full time into real estate. As Brandon Turner likes to say, I have traded another job for a job flipping houses. The rental income, non-real estate income, and savings allow me to feel fine doing this. Even if I lose all my money and fail miserably, I will still have my rental portfolio providing cashflow and can go back to a regular job.

Hope this makes sense!

@Keith Minton I am new to the Jacksonville area and recently full time in investing, so I'm trying to hit the ground running! I close on my first flip tomorrow. I would definitely love to meet up and chat. My partnership on the rental side of things has been great and allowed us to acquire 10 units in our first year of investing. Jacksonville REIF is having a meeting on Feb 16th - I went last month and it was very informative. This time I will be attending the commercial meetup that Max mentioned above. Here's the BP thread talking about it https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/403843-jacksonville-fl-small-commercial-multifamily?page=2#p2568004t (@Kimberly Gopp this will be helpful for you too). 

Count me in, I will let you know if anything changes but I plan on being there.

@Danielle Laughlin thank you! That's awesome that you broke through that barrier and started your portfolio. In lots of markets like the ones I'm in, multifamily is great for cashflow!

Thanks @George Smith, it really is! I really appreciate it @Dana Whicker @Kai Kopsch @Ayodeji Kuponiyi thank you.

@David Grabiner Our partnership is 50/50 although I own one property by myself from just before we started our partnership, and it's the largest in our portfolio. And to be honest we'll lose some cashflow when we refinance a property in a few months as we're not paying interest yet on the current private investor loan. After that our cashflow will be around $200 per door.

I wouldn't be where I am without frugality! It takes discipline but it's worth it. I've only truly been full time real estate for a few weeks as I took the holidays off, but it's a roller coaster for sure! It's a little tough some days when you don't have the threat of getting fired or someone watching and making sure you're working. Other days are really productive and I'll find myself working in to the night (like tonight). I love it so far. I didn't expect there to be so much emotion involved every day. I find myself really down on days when I didn't get much done, experienced rejection in one way or another, or felt negative about the future. Then I'll be on cloud nine when something finally works out, I find a great deal, a house goes under contract, etc. That's something I need to work on for sure. As it continues to click and come together over time, I'm sure it will be easier to stay nice and steady.

@Scott Matthew C. thanks Scott! I didn't really have a mentor. My parents own a rental and flipped a house, and my business partner's parents have a small portfolio of rentals, but none of them really "mentored" us - more just there to bounce ideas if we asked. My mini mentors were the hundreds of investors on the BP podcast as I worked my way through most of the episodes and did my best to heed their advice!

Thanks @Mustafa Aziz! Keep plugging away @David Wong I'm a fan of starting out in real estate in a related field to gain experience and skills. I just left my job working admin at a real estate office, which definitely exposed me to the industry.