All Forum Posts by: Kim Stuart

Welcome to BP @Richard Lee.

Best of luck on your investment endeavors.  I will be looking forward to hearing your success stories, as you already have a bit of experience in the real estate field. Make sure to network with people in your area (the network -->  tab will automatically filter local members to the top) and begin networking and making meaningful relationships.  There are so many knowledgable people on here.  Also, the network --> events tab will show you local real estate meet up events that are happening locally, which gives you a great opportunity to meet member who are always willing to help and share stories and become potential partners with if you find that you share similar goals.

-kim

Hi @Michael Oliveira

Welcome to BP!  I am a software engineer from washington state looking to go down the similar path to financial independence as you are.  I love my job, I just want to own some real estate to provide financial freedom and not solely depend on income alone.  I have gotten into stock investments as well, however I am putting that on a brief hold as of now just because I know the short term growth in real estate will outweight that of stocks in my current position.  I have met with an investor off BP and I am so excited for the multifamily unit opportunity of investment.  I am looking for my first triplex or fourplex by september as an owner occupied investor, renting out the other 2 or 3 units.  After I grow enough cash flow, I immediately plan on reinvesting that in at least 2-3 more units that I will completely rent out so I can begin to actually pocket some of the income generated from the rentals (at that point I should have enough after budgeting for maintenance and repairs, I know the first 3 or 4 rental units with all be to get above the breakeven point after the repairs and maintenance reserve.

So that is the path I am on currently!  Maybe you are on a similar path, or a different path but as you go throughout your journey I hope you keep us updated on your path in general.  I have found the stories shared on BP are so valuable and priceless!

I highly encourage you to network using the network/members tab.  It will immediately show you members located nearest to you.  Invite them out for coffee, happy hour, dinner, etc and pick their brain!  The community here is so helpful and willing to help and share their story and since they are where we want to eventually get, who better else to ask than somebody in our own communities, people who know our markets.  Also, the events tab will help you find meet up events locally as well!

Good luck on you journey and keep us posted!

-Kim

welcome to BP @Tristan.  I am new to BP myself,  looking to go down a similar path as you with wanting to get into multifamily units.  One thing I would recommend is taking the time to reach out to people using the networks feature. It will ny default list members according to distance.  I've reached out to a few people close to my area and even though I am fairly new to this as well, I have never been rejected from a conversation at all.  Everybody on BP is very welcoming to Sharing their and hearing yours.  Also, by using the events tab, I have found a free meetup event I'll be attending on Thursday about 5 miles from where I stay.  I hope you find success as you begin your journey. Meet as many people as you can on here.  Not only will they be potential future advisors, lenders or partners, but friends that will have your actual interest in mind as experienced veterans who will give you unbiased opinions and advice.

Hey All!

I am excited for the opportunity to attend my first local meet up!  As the proud newbie, however, I admit I have no idea what I am getting myself into.  As the newbiest of newbs, both in the meet up and real estate investment departments in general, I was wondering what I can bring to the table (other than beer) to set myself up for a successful meet up.  Should I bring supplies to take notes, a laptop, etc. and also with no experience, is there anything I can bring to the table that would contribute to the overall agenda for the event?

@Jameson Sullivan Thanks for the warm welcome!

@Kenny C. Thanks for the heads up Kenny!  I didn't even know about that until now.  I will be sure to look into that!

Hi @Lorraine Reid.  In terms of which Credit Card to pay off first, I have learned that in terms of your credit, your collection of cards are looked at as an total usage rate.  So you if you 3 credit cards, with 400, 700 and 1200 limits respectively, they are scored as a total of your total balance/total limit.  so don't necessarily freak out over the 29%. Take care of it of course, but understand that as your overall ratio decreases, your score goes up.  

Also, I just used the Experian Boost feature and it jumped my score up 15 points instantly.  Basically (and I don't know if Equifax and Transunion offer this) through Experian, you link Experian to your bank account and it automatically searches your history and finds all your not reported accounts that you have linked to your bank account.  So it found that I pay for my AT&T phone bill and my internet bill and gave me 15 more points just for on time payment history.  The other nice feature is that anything that negatively impacts your score, it either doesn't count or you can just remove the boost feature and your score returns to normal.

I am in a near similar situation as you.  In 2 months, my credit increased around 45 points just from lowering my total balance, lowering my usage rate (I actually got notifications saying "your credit score increased due to lower utilization rate", and from the Experian boost feature.

Remember this is a community of people wanting to help you as well.  Network with people in your area on here!  I have met a couple people on here and I am getting ready to meet with someone next week just to connect, have lunch and learn more about what they do.  You may come to find that the route some people took to get to their first investment opportunity had little or nothing to do with their credit score at all.  

I hope this helps a little.

-Kim

@Nate Stokes  Thanks a lot for the encouragement!!  Just hearing a success story means a lot to me at this point.  Its nice hearing about all these "purchased for $47,000, put in $12,000 in rehab and sold for $116,000" stories in every example in every book i have read, but I am willing to bet that that isn't necessarily how the Tacoma market quite works hahaha!  Looking at our market prices was a little intimidating at first, and after reading book after book and comparing it to our market gave me much analysis paralysis (as @Edward Seid so accurately point out to me!).  But hearing the success stories of investors in my area in itself from this bp community have given me more confidence and motivation to "just do it" than any book I have read!  Thank you all again and I WILL be bugging you all (not with there not being anything in it for you) very soon!  

@Dmitriy Fomichenko man I have tried 3 times with mention somebody using @ and names just dont appear but thanks for all of the tips.  The alert feature was one I was unaware of and have already started using because of you.  Thanks a lot!

@George Blower thanks for the warm welcome!