Originally posted by @Terry Free:
I guess for me, someone who is interested in real estate investing, would be to be able to control my worth. A normal 9-5 job/career tells you what you are worth and takes 40 hrs or more of time, that could be spent on raising your family. With real estate investing, I can be in control of my own worth, not someone else's bottom line. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a 9-5 job. however, for me, all I know is struggle. Real estate is my way out of poverty. Yes, it requires knowledge and hardwork. I know that I may fail from time to time. I even risk losing everything. I would rather risk it all and control my worth and spend 20-40 yrs in a career, which a rolex to show for my hardwork.
Hi Terry I read your profile, you want what my husband and I wanted 8 years ago, let me tell you something, what you want takes time, you need to be patient and you need to be smart with your money. I don't know your situation right now but I can tell you the steps we took to get to where we are now: (Keep in mind we have been "live in flippers" for 7 years)
1) pay off all your credit cards, loans, pay off your car ect...
(If you have a house don't worry about paying that off yet, I'll give you an idea of what you can do about that in a bit)
2) once all your debt is paid off, start saving money, you save money by only buying what you need NOT WHAT YOU WANT, so you NEED hygienic supplies, food, clothes (but only once every 2, 3 months making a budget on that of maybe $100 to $150 per person in the house hold) you need gas, utilities, rent or mortgage ect.. you DON'T NEED for example if you have cable with HBO do you really need Netflix and do you really need to go to the movies every weekend, do you need to have all the movie packages that the cable company offers?? Do you need to go to the bars when you can just buy a six pack and drink at home, do you really need to get your nails and hair done at a solon when you can do it yourself, do you need to pay so many phone bills does everyone including your 3 yr old need phones? Ect..So really look at what you have now and ask yourself is this a necessity do I need this or did I just want it?? Once you get rid of all the thing that are not a necessity than you continue to step 3
3) once you take care of step 2 you will see that you are now saving money and you just keep saving all the money that you have left over from pay all your necessities for that month. You start to make that savings grow little by little. It takes time to build a strong foundation to wealth.
4) there you now have $10k saved a few months later you have $20k saved.
5) do you have a house now? If you do does it have equity? If no what can you do to the house to make it have equity, can you updated it or fix the roof what ever it is do it with the money you have saved (I recommend having a real estate agent look at your house and tell you how to increase its value by remodeling it or what ever needs to be done to it). So know you know what has to be done use the money you saved and begin to work on your house.
So let's say you have a house and it does have equity, what now, we'll how much equity, if you SELL it will the equity plus what you have saved be enough for you to use as a down payment to another house but a SMALLER one that might need a bit of rehab or maybe it gives you enough to pay a smaller house that needs rehab in cash. So what I'm trying to say is if you have equity and enough saved you down size you DON'T upgrade, ones you find and buy your smaller house slowly fix the house and wait 2 years, but what are you doing meanwhile well you keep saving money to be ready for your next move.
Your next move will be after 2 years you sell your remodeled house hopefully making at least $20k on it, so now you have made your money bigger, you now have started a little snow ball, you continue to save and continue to flip, and this will give you the snow ball effect.
If you don't have a house yet than purchase one by using your saved money to get a small outdated house that you can instantly get equity once you step foot in it. Wait a couple of years and start with step 5.
My husband and I followed these steps but our first flip was actually a house we built. Since 2007 we have been working at it, our $100k has grown over $340k and have been mortgage free since 2008, we are proud to say every transaction since 2008 have been cash purchases and have not lost on a deal as of yet, I believe it's because we take it one step at a time and have built a strong foundation, we started from the bottom with only our dreams to push us to where we are now and still growing.
4 things to remember Terry
Location, location, location and you need a lot of patience.
I hope this helps or maybe you already knew, so I hope it helps anyone that would like an idea as to how to get started without using or as little loans as possiable and to eventually be mortgage and loan free.
If you want anymore info contact me I will try my best to give you a good answer. ;)
