All Forum Posts by: Niko Molina

Laptop such as a Macbook? An electronic pad such as an iPad? A desktop at home? Or do you keep it old school and use a pen and notebook?

Which do you guys prefer to use and why? Is one better than the other two for certain things? 

I will not be participating in the rat race until I'm 65! I'll be damn sure of that. I'm using funds I acquire by participating in the rat race right now to jump start my REI endeavors and using the time I've given myself to acquire as much knowledge as I can before I buy my first multi-unit in Spring 2016.

I'm trying to get out now - at 21 - by beginning to invest in real estate. I want to create a business - I seek to be more of an entrepreneur than an investor. 

Good luck to all of you and I hope you exit the rat race soon! And to the ones who have already escaped...I applaud you.

As mentioned above: ASSEMBLE A TEAM! This is a big point I've put at the front of my 'VIP" list of things to remember throughout my self-education of REI.

Here is a great blog post written by @Joshua Dorkin on assembling a team and the key players you should acquire. 
 http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2006/3/15/...

Heres a Bigger Pockets search on the word "team" that you should check out too. Many other great blogs written. Having a TEAM will make investments go much more smoothly. http://www.biggerpockets.com/search/wordpress?utf8...


Work 'ON' your business - not 'IN' your business. 

Elias, I would look into an FHA loan. Given you qualify for one, an FHA loan allows you to put 3.5% down instead of 10% or 20% which are typically down payment percentages done with conventional mortgages.

More info on FHA loans can be found here:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/mortgage/fha-loans/

An FHA loan is the route I'm going to go for financing when I buy my first property in Spring 2016. Good luck.

 Thanks Brandon. Was disappointed I missed the meet-up when you came to Lima. I wasn't exactly a BP member then and had no idea. I'll be sure to catch the next one - if there ever is one.

I believe that was one of the first articles I read here on BP about two weeks ago. However I've read so many posts and blogs on here within the past 2 weeks, I feel like it's due for a re-read to refresh on the specifics of what it went over. Thanks a lot.

I'm sure we'll cross paths sometime. Until then,

See you around here and take care!

Exactly! I'll probably do an FHA loan with 3.5% or 5% down or whatever works for an FHA around here instead of putting 10% or 20% down (nice chunk of change) in the form of a conventional mortgage, so that I have extra money to either renovate, fix-up or to use for unexpected repairs on whatever multiunit I decide to purchase.

Then after a year of living there, which the FHA states I must do, I may attempt to purchase yet another multiunit to 'house hack' with a low or no down payment method of financing. With doing so, leaves me with 6-8 Units under 2 roofs in 2 years.

With having a solid W2 income, I will be using it to fund my REI's. That is my plan. I don't want to be working at this Honda plant my entire life - I just want to use the money I make from it... TO MAKE MORE MONEY. :)


@Ben Leybovich: I just have a feeling that won't be the case. ;)

Who I Am and How I Decided On Real Estate

I'm a young, 21 year old guy from Lima, OH looking to invest my money and begin a new adventure in doing so. From what some of my older friends that I know say, and from what some of you BP members have said, is that they wished they would have started in real estate at my age, or younger than they originally did, so that they would be reaping the benefits at their current age. They gave me some ideas of what they would have done, what somebody they know has done, etc. and it sparked up a light bulb in my head. It's an interesting field to me and I'm excited to get my feet wet.

Outside of this newly established real-estate journey, I work a 3-11 at a Honda engine plant, which provides me with stable income to invest with...especially in this low-cost-of-living area in the Mid-West that I reside in. In my free time I enjoy reading and researching various interests of mine and playing guitar. I enjoy working out and dieting as it tests ones discipline, self control and teaches one to work hard and to be patient in order to see results, which I feel has been a priceless attribute acquired and will transfer over to my real estate endeavours.

My Experience With Real Estate (or lack-thereof)
I have no real experience thus far except for everything that I've read, heard and watched. I'm attempting to prepare a much as I can before I get my feet wet. I'm reading blogs, posts, books, listening to Podcasts and watching Youtube videos from seasoned vets to try and soak up as much knowledge as possible. I'm trying to educate myself to the best of my ability. Education is the only experience I have with real estate and I'm still in the process of obtaining all of it. I have seen Ben Leybovich, who is residing in Lima just as I am, is an extremely active member here at BP and an even more successful RE investor on that note. I'm sure we'll be in touch often. We've got a nice little Chipotle meet slotted for next Saturday during the lunch hours. I'm really looking forward to that. 

What I Want to Accomplish 
I want to provide nice housing in the form of renting out SFH's, multi's and many-unit properties and to be a solid, friendly but firm, reliable landlord to families and young professionals around my area due to growing up with my family under a "slum-lord." I wish to not have others experience the conditions my family and I lived in. Of course, I am also in the RE field to earn my share of money, as all of us are. In due time, I wish to bring in $5,000/month in passive income after all of my monthly property maintenance/management expenses are paid for. I want to create a well-oiled A-team that works together flawlessly for all of my deals and properties and allow me to continue purchasing real estate while making sure everything runs smoothly producing cash in ALL of our pockets. I really don't see a "limit" or "end goal" to my real estate journey. Ie get 100 units, stop investing there and be happy with the current cash flow. I could. I won't doubt there are many that have an end goal - reach it - and then are done. But I see myself investing and investing over and over again owning many, MANY properties... growing bigger and BIGGER. You could say my 'end goal' is to grow my RE business as successful and as big as I possibly can over the next 40 years.

My Starting Plan

My initial plan is to house-hack my first and perhaps my second property (depending on how quick I can pay off my first), followed by purchasing multi-unit and even many-unit properties to rent out. I plan to pull the trigger on my first property in Spring 2016. I have until then to learn and soak up RE knowledge my young mind can absorb and retain.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. I try to prepare as much as I can in anything and everything that I do.

I see many posters in this thread are saying they would have started earlier. With me being 21, I feel lucky to have come to the decision of wanting to become involved in real estate at such a young age compared to having the light bulb go off in my head while I'm in my 30's or 40's. 

Could have a "Lima/Findlay" one. They're close enough in distance and close in size. Hell, even Craigslist puts us together.

Also, I noticed that there are two "Columbus" regions. Mistake? 

I haven't found much on this. Perhaps one of the vet's could blog about it?

For a SFH, where the kitchen and living areas are shared between the tenants and the owner and the bathroom(s) shared/split up with bedrooms to each tenant and one to the owner... how does advertising go for that? The tenants have to live with the owner and vice versa. There may be some tenants who may dislike living with the landlord.

What about duplexes, triplexes, four-plexes where the landlord lives in one unit? The tenants don't have to really "live" with the landlord as they would with a SFH with the landlord renting out the extra bedrooms, but I'm sure they'd run into the landlord often.