Hi there! Newbies from Spokane, WA here. I'm Jerry Butler, married to my beautiful and wicked smart wife JoAnna for 25+ years and the father of two great girls. We've lived in Spokane WA for the last 20 something years. If it weren't for the snow, this place would be perfect! I'm a car nut, especially older German cars. I hike, camp (every once in a while) and love the outdoors. I've worked as a cook and dishwasher so I think I know my way around a kitchen, or so my Wife says. By day I'm a mild mannered Technology Manager, by night (and any free time I have) a budding real estate investor. My Wife and I love to travel to see what's out there. Been around the world and would like to have more time to do it again. Thus the 'plan'.
As of 12/5/2017 we are finally becoming landlords! Well, we'll close on our first deal in a few days. After inspecting quite a few properties and turning all of them down, we've settled on a nice 4plex. It's not perfect, but I think a good place to start. And it has room for improvement!
We've looked at over 50 SFR, MFR and commercial properties in the Spokane area. Odd that we've lived here so long AND still learning a lot about the different neighborhoods. Now with an investor's eye, we're learning what rents go for, meeting hard lenders (and investors), and talking with previous landlords and current tenants.
We're learning about the law, running a business, how to manage a property, how to work with contractors and a whole slew of other things. Who the heck knew what 'House Hacking' was until they visited this site?! Still have tons to learn!
This site has been such a great resource and more times than not, we find our answers here. The rest has come from the people we work with. One thing we've learned is that things happen pretty fast. Be prepared to commit or back out. Either way, have a plan. Know what your numbers are. The tools on this site have been so helpful in this regard.
We've made offers on several properties and have been in bidding wars with other buyers (not fun). I'm sure some of them are here.....you know who you are! LOL. The process though has been the same. We are just beginning to understand how this works. Baby steps right?
Before 8/9/2017 we had zero experience in real estate outside of buying our home. Now, after watching as many podcasts as we could, YouTube videos, reading through forum posts and listening to anyone who'd talk to us about the topic, we're just days away from closing our first hard fought deal. Thanks Bigger Pockets!
Looking forward, we're planning our next moves. How to increase the value of the property while lowering expenses? Where is our next deal? How do we fund it? Who will we meet next? We're meeting with the local REI group and hope to make some good connections. Next year should be a lot of fun.
