Hi all,
I grew up the son of a land lord. My father became a land lord out of necessity rather than by design. And I learned how NOT to do just about every job you can think of. 😭
For the better part of my youth I loathed real estate, I hated the work, & the headache of listening to everyones excuses for why they wouldnt have the rent this week, but that it was a good thing I came by because the toilet wouldnt flush, & the sink was clogged....again. (diapers in toilet & lard build up in the sink).
I did the "college thing" & graduated with honors in Winter of 2006 as an Electrical Engineer. I began my career in early 2007 only to find that though the money was good in comparison to other careers, I would still never achieve the level of wealth &/or independence we all dream about deep down inside.
After realizing I made six figures in Seattle & although we lived well, we still lived paycheck to paycheck & still couldnt really aford the type of home I had always envisioned for us.
I feared that if I was ever injured or lost my job I'd have zero income & I didnt want that for my family, so I decided something needed to change & I took a hard look in the mirror & decided I was going to figure it out no matter what.
In 2008 I decided to try foreclosure auctions, at that time everyone seemed to be walking away & I wanted a place to live.
We found the perfect home in our dream neighborhood going up for auction & we wanted it really badly, but there was absolutely no chance we'd ever afford even the smallest home in that area via traditional methods...so we prayed about it & when we got the call that we were the highest bidder we couldn't believe it. And for only $1 over the opening bid. Nobody had bid against us, unbelievable!! We even ended up in one of the biggest homes in the neighborhood! The excitement lasted until we opened the property front door & found a major project. 😢
After 6 months of cleaning, fixing, painting, & getting it all looking nice we got to a point where we said, ok that's good enough, now we enjoy. We ended up with around $60k in equity at the lowest price evaluation for the home after all the repairs.
In 2010 I got the itch & I was able to get a $160k loan for another auction property, this time in N Tacoma & again, ended up with a heavy fixer. We flipped it in 6 months (rehab to sold) & made about $40k...we pulled a second on our home & started a promising water/oil hauling company in the eagle ford shale in Texas & ran for 2 years before finally getting taken to the cleaners by a slimeball...so I learned to trust nobody.
Fast-forward to today, & I'm now president & CEO of my own real estate company Homes4Money.com. I was able to quit my job & we are now packing & moving to Texas in about a month.
I buy, sell, fix/flip, sandwich loans, whatever needs to be done to help a homeowner out of a messy situation while still making enough profit to ensure I get to go out and do it again.
I like wholesaling most, simply because you keep your hands cleaner, & its less stress. But for the right deal I'll still take it down with cash or partner with a buyer if its too much money to risk on one deal
I look forward to networking with people from WA & TX. I still have many contacts in WA, and I'm steadily making more & more contacts in TX. So lets get together & see how we can get along! 😉
-Robert
