All Forum Posts by: Sara Hook

 Hi Ted! Great to see a Nebraskan on here! While I no longer live in Omaha I do visit regularly for work and family. How is the market there? Is there much in the way of cash flowing buy and holds?

Hi Eric! Nice to meet you. I've followed the REIA meetings via youtube (as I work most weekday evenings and would be unable to attend in person). For the most part, the first section of these meetings with Shennoah are helpful, she's usually talking about current market trends in the major Texas cities. However, when Phil talks it's usually the same each meeting, which can be helpful info but it's the same script, so once you've heard it a couple times you can basically quote him.

I also attended virtually their free workshop the last weekend of January. Most of this was also helpful (albeit basic) information. The only thing is you had to tolerate a big 3 hour sales pitch on Saturday for their program "Big Dogs" and from all accounts here and on reddit is basically just a big money suck to Phil and Shennoah. I believe it costs something like 60k to do, and I've heard nothing but negative or neutral reviews, nothing actually worth the amount people put in. As others have vocalized here, I think Bigger Pockets all in all is going to be just as good if not better help than the Texas REIA, not to say I won't listen to the market updates, but Phil reminds me too much of the slimy real estate agent from the movie American Beauty hahahaha.

Thanks again for reaching out!

I'm a Houston area investor and I was just looking at these last night. I can't recall, but are you only showing if someone submits an offer? 

Also, I believe when I ran the numbers last night that at that sales price (and with an 8 percent interest rate) this property would not cash flow. 

I realize you've only had it since May, but how is the turnover with tenants? 

Happy to connect and thanks for posting

 No way! I'm from Omaha Nebraska! Did you go to UNL or UNO? I have a contract with the Omaha Symphony, I travel up there about 7 times a year to play with the Symphony and conveniently, visit all my family. I

Thank you so much everyone for the connections and your replies! Once again I'm floored by the community here at BP. I'm so excited for this journey!

@Alicia Marks thank you! Nice to meet you! I actually got my degree from the University of North Texas and worked/lived in Denton for about 3 years, I love the DFW area. Where did you play/get your music degree, what did you play or do you still? 

My spouse and I don't live paycheck to paycheck so I can't really relate to the "starving musician" part. We're more excited to use RE to help us diversify our portfolio and add to our retirement plan. It is certainly not a get rich quick road, and we're no strangers to the joys of delayed gratification. I'm viewing it more as an exit ramp to our careers when our bodies won't work the way the used to :)

Thanks so much for the tips and encouragement! 

Greetings! My name is Sara and I am a new(ish) member to Bigger Pockets and the real estate business. Here's a quick run down about myself and my spouse Bobby:

We are both full time professional musicians and educators in the Houston area, ages 32 and 36. During the pandemic Bobby got his real estate license and now works part-time for Opendoor showing houses in addition to his extensive music career. Last year we bought our first home in Cypress, and personally, it wasn't until I owned real estate did I realize how much I loved it. I enjoyed the process of searching, buying and moreover, I've abolutely love learning about home maintenance and gaining DIY experience. We have zero debt aside from the mortgage and are currently saving (investing, IRAs, SEP IRA, HSA etc.) 40-50 percent of our income. We feel we've built a solid baseline for our retirement but want to diversify our portfolio with more properties.

Our goal is to secure enough properties that we can live off the cash flow or at least supplement our retirement. Hence, the strategy we're likely to target first would be buy and hold. Aside from Bobby's RE license, as far as education goes  we both have been reading, learning, listening to podcasts (BP) for about 4 months now, and the more I learn the more it seems I still need to know. 

1. Any Houston area folks out here interested in connecting? Particularly investors buying locally

2. I'm going to join virtually on a Houston REIA meeting this Thursday, is anyone here a part of the Houston REIA or would recommend or not recommend it?

3. What's your favorite RE book? I have The Essential Handbook for Landlords by Rittenhouse on the way today and How to Invest in Real Estate by Dorkin and Turner of BP.

I've been absolutely floored by the amazing members of Bigger Pockets and how much this site has helped me so far, thank you all so much in advance for your responses!

-Sara and Bobby

@Rene G.

Totally agree with all your points. I'm a professional musician by trade, so needless to say, I am no stranger to diligent, daily work being required to earn and maintain something truly of value that will make you money. 

I'm actually very interested in being a landlord, which will work great with the buy and hold strategy. Since purchasing our first home (primary residence) last November I've enjoyed learning how to fix up and maintain my home, taking a lot of enjoyment knowing the money I'm saving DIYing and the knowledge I can use in the future, fixing up rentals.

Where's the best place to start, other than fixing up my own house, that I can learn the basics of landlording? I have in my Amazon cart Karen Rittenhouse's The Essential Handbook for Landlords. Do you recommend this or any other books getting started? 

@Travis Timmons thank you so much for your reply, I've sent you a PM to connect. 

@Aaron Gordy yes I agree, thank you for pointing that out. I've decided to not seek help from this agent as it seems she's mostly into a partnership on a flip vs mentoring on a buy and hold.