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All Forum Posts by: Justin Famulari

Justin Famulari has started 5 posts and replied 16 times.

Post: BiggerPockets has RUINED real estate!

Justin FamulariPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Charleston, SC
  • Posts 16
  • Votes 15
Originally posted by @Steve Morris:

Plus it's made a lot of guys with no money think they wholesale properties they've never seen to people they don't know.

Sorry, still think experience is the best teacher, but the tuition can be a real b****.

I have a few novice wholesalers in my area that I keep in contact with. They send me “deals” that are by no means “deals” BUT I try to give them a look and let them know what I think. Someday they will find a good deal and hopefully they think of me when they do! 

Post: BiggerPockets has RUINED real estate!

Justin FamulariPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Charleston, SC
  • Posts 16
  • Votes 15

It’s time somebody comes out and says this and it mine as well be me. I’m a nice guy by nature, so I can’t just sit back and hold this in anymore. BiggerPockets has ruined real estate...for everyone not using it!

Ok, ok, so the title may have an ounce of ClickBait to it, but I don’t care, I just say it how it is. And how is it?

I consider myself a normal guy, albeit one that has always had a focus on obtaining more than what I was raised with. My parents did everything they could for my brother and I as kids. They couldn’t afford much, but what they could afford they did for my brother and I. They provided food, shelter, and love as well as they could; I was lucky to have such hard working, loving, parents.

I’m now 36 years old, a father, a husband, and an entrepreneur. I have spent the last 12 years working on growing a pizzeria company my brother, and friends from school, created back in 2008. It’s been working, the company has been growing, and finally has afforded me the first chance in my life to start saving money.

It was 2018 when I realized this for the first time. I deposited a check into the bank and happened to look at the bank receipt before I crumpled it up. It read $50,371...I blinked twice. “How could that be?” I thought to myself. I had been working hard, head down, for over a decade and didn’t realize that for the first time in my life my account had a significant amount of money in it; it actually snuck up on me, it was amazing.

The next move was obvious; It was time to spend it all.

I had always thought real estate was amazing. I actually bought my first house with my brother when I was 19 to help give my family somewhere to live while I went to college. Long story short, my brother and I lost that house sometime in 2010 (Deed in Lieu) after we couldn’t afford the payments while we focused on getting the pizza company off the ground. When I “found” the chunk of money in my bank account I figured it was time to get back into real estate, though. I searched the web, read a bunch of articles from anywhere I could find, and then like the rest of you found BiggerPockets. Through its resources I have gained more knowledge than I could have imagined. The podcasts have become a must for me; they continue to inspire with each and every one. The forums have answered countless questions I’ve had during my research. And the books have become my schooling, I have a stack on my nightstand that I read as much as I can.

The last 2 years have been good for me. I have managed to recycle that same $50k along the way into 5 successful BRRRR's and am now currently working on my first flip. Wow.

BiggerPockets hasn’t ruined real estate...it has given me the opportunity to fulfill my life goal of providing for my family, by creating passive income, so we can do what we want, when we want, how we want. We are not there yet, but with the help of the tools BiggerPockets provides, the path has never been more clear.

Real estate has the power to change lives, it has mine. Thanks to all who have contributed to BiggerPockets, and to all who have helped someone along the way! Please comment on how real estate has changed your life, your way of thinking, or simply why you love it so much! Thanks again BiggerPockets!!

Post: Can Claritin D = BRRRR?

Justin FamulariPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Charleston, SC
  • Posts 16
  • Votes 15

@Logan Turner thanks for the encouragement. I’m “kinda” a writer; I wrote several hundred pages for a novel a few years back that I haven’t finished...yet...haha. I’m currently reading @David Greene Long Distance Real Estate Investing working on gaining confidence to look outside of my Charlston SC market. As far as I can calculate it’s a real tough market to find cash flowing properties; the 1% rule is almost all but dead except in the “rough” parts of town.

@Karen O. thanks!

@Kenneth Garrett I do not recommend this tactic! Haha. Thanks for the encouragement, I’ll find my next rental soon enough! 

Post: Can Claritin D = BRRRR?

Justin FamulariPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Charleston, SC
  • Posts 16
  • Votes 15

Nobody likes an unfinished story! 

...Welp, turns out the property was considered a mobile home and lending becomes an issue. I could get a commercial loan, but not quite sure I want to do that...

THE END! 

Post: Can Claritin D = BRRRR?

Justin FamulariPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Charleston, SC
  • Posts 16
  • Votes 15

It all started with the common cold.

It was 8:45pm last night and I had just put my 2-year old daughter down, it was time to try and beat this sickness and get some serious rest. I fumbled around the medicine cabinet for anything that would clear my sinuses; to my relief I found one Claritin-D pill. I popped it in and swallowed it down with some high quality H2O...it was time to get some serious rest.

I was sleeping by 9:45pm but to my surprise I woke up at 2:45am, wide awake. My mind wandered steadily through the properties I had been analyzing the day prior...none of them good deals...not a chance...there are no good deals in this market...or was there maybe that one with the blue roof...nah...that one didn't have a high enough ARV...but wait that other one in the nicer neighborhood...nope...that one didn't have a high enough rent to justify...what about that Triplex that has been siting on the market a couple of months...WAIT, that Triplex has been sitting on the market a couple of months!

I popped out of bed and headed through the darkness, stumbling around children’s toys, on my way to the computer in the other room. I flipped open the lid and squinted at the bright light from the display. It was 3:59am, I was sick, clearly it was time to run some numbers on the property. Buy. Rehab. Rent. Refinance. Repeat.

The numbers in my spreadsheet started to fill in one by one until I had just one left, the all important monthly rental income. Searching for rental comps on Trulia quickly gave the answers I was looking for. Input. Enter. Done...

I scanned the numbers...blink, blink...it worked...the numbers actually worked!

My day was supposed to start at 7am, but it was only 4:30...why the heck was I awake?! I breathed deep, no sinus pressure...I get a hunch that maybe it was the medicine. A three-second google search leads me to this wonderful headline: Claritin-D Known to Cause Insomnia.

Well there you have it; Claritin-D = BRRRR.

I called my rock-star real estate agent this morning (of course I had to wait a couple of hours, not to be rude at 5am).

We have a showing tomorrow...wish me luck!

    Post: My First BRRRR! With Pictures!

    Justin FamulariPosted
    • Rental Property Investor
    • Charleston, SC
    • Posts 16
    • Votes 15

    Inspirational! Great job man.