All Forum Posts by: Jeter Perez

Hi Jeter, 

I also started by getting my real estate license. I was then able to represent myself buying properties and credit the buyer's agent commission to my closing costs. It's a very underrated thing to do!

John

Hi Jeter. At the time, we were young and adventurous, so we bought the least expensive house in all of Ada County, Idaho, for $125,000. We were in a bedroom-community town about 15 minutes outside of Boise. It was off-market, but a friend connected us with the realtor who owned it. We used conventional financing and put down $25k.

It was a two bedroom one bath DUMP.

We did a live-in remodel that turned it into a three bedroom, two bath adorable cottage with impeccable landscaping. We sold it for $200k a few years later.

Looking back, we should have kept this house, refinanced it to pull out as much equity as possible, and offered it as a long term rental.

Scott

Hi Jeter. We started about 15 years ago with a series of live-in flips. We'd buy the worst house in a good neighborhood, live in it and remodel is over a 3 to 5 year time period, sell it and repeat. This let us build considerable equity in the house we're selling right now in Boise. In turn, proceeds from the sale of this Boise house will fund a number of rental properties we intend to purchase over the coming year in a less expensive market.

Best of luck!

Scott

 Hey @Jeter Perez

Happy to have you back to BP! 

Yes you are speaking my real estate investment journey! I got licensed in 2021 & then the house we purchased we house hacked our way into our first rental. We are now passively making $400 or so from that property. It was our primary residence for 2 years and now we have it as a rental. 

We purchased a new house in September of this year and next year in 2024 we plan on putting this on the market for rent and doing the same thing. Acquiring a rental by living in it first & putting only 5% down. 

I started both at the same time. And when I got my license I started part time for 3-4 months before leaving my full time job. Just get started on both and you'll figure it out

@Jeter Perez I got my start by buying a B&B. A fellow B&B owner got me into REI about 1 year after buying the B&B and together my spouse and that person bought two multi families with 18 units. We had a bad falling out involving court and she bought us out. We used that money to buy a SFH for LTR. We had another bad experience with that and ended up selling it and quit REI which is a major regret I have.

Now 25 years later I am back into REI after buying a second B&B and getting a W-2 job and eventually selling both B&Bs and having the W-2 for 15 years.

I have two shifts left at my W-2 until I am full time self employed with my REI. It's been a long haul. I'm excited but not quite sure it's the right time. I've stayed on extremely part time at the old job, maybe 2-3 shifts per month. Just enough to cover my health insurance.

The first time I did REI almost 30 years ago my then spouse and I provided 10% down on both buildings and we had owner financing. Our partner was to provide the hands on physical repairs and maintenance and the management of the property.

This time around I had saved up enough money for the down payment and got a private money loan from my parents for the rest of it. Shortly after the closing my parents decided they no longer wanted to be involved and I decided to cash in some CDs that were coming in for renewal to pay off the rest of the debt owed to my parents. Once the house was rehabbed and rented it was cash flowing for about $800/month.

lOVE THE STARTUP STORY. Thanks for sharing.

I am probably not the model story but I quit my engineering job with around $8,000 saved up. I wholesaled my way to purchase my first property and have BRRR'd my way to a portfolio now. There is a lot that I left out, and I could probably talk to you for hours on how I got started. But not everyone has to make as hardcore of a start as I did.

@Jeter Perez - I started with a W2 and househack. Once I had a few properties under my belt, I got my license and became an investor focused agent. I think being an agent helps your investing career dramatically... not so much the commissions but all of the other intrinsic benefits it provides. Such as helping build your team, network, finding mentors, and best of all, it forces you to always have a pulse on the market (even if you are not in buying mode). Real estate investing has its seasons.... you save, you buy, you save, you buy etc. This is great, but it also de-motivates you to always be looking and putting offers when you are in the season of saving. I think this is one of the biggest mistakes a new investor can make; if you run across an amazing deal and you do not have enough money to take it down yourself, you can always find other solutions to close if you think creatively such as jving on the deal, raising money, or even just grab the commission as an agent. Hence always be looking is an important matra. Being an agent provides immense amount of value outside of just the commissions, nonetheless I recommend parring it with a W2 while you start your journey. 

@Jeter Perez

Technically I got started due to my full time job - thenbuying my primary residence so I understood what it takes to upkeep a home.

I didn’t buy investment property for ten years as market was so hot 2002-2012 and then saved money and bought then. Last ten years - no complaints life is good