All Forum Posts by: Taylor K.

I started out at 22 years old making 23k/year in a warehouse. We attempted to buy our first home that happened to be a short sale..."not so short" we moved in because the Realitor told us it was a sure thing, long story short 4 months later the bank countered 10k above original asking price. So we found a new house that was a Homepath and paid 60k, it was in need of minor updates, but surrounded by homes in the 110k to 150k range. 1 week after closing I lost my job. 15 months later I had found another job again 23k/yr and I somehow convinced my wife to rent our 5 bed 2 bath house and move to a duplex 2 bed 1bath upper and lower units (62k) purchase price we put 3.5% down on a FHA loan. PLENTY of mistakes later and my single family home tenant broke our hand written lease LOL we moved back home and rented the duplex in full. This now paid for both mortgages on both properties. I hated my job so I found another one I hate and currently make 42k working 50+hrs/week. April of 2015 my in-laws were getting forclosed on and in talks the mentioned a thing called redemption cost for them to buy it back. In 2007 they paid $216k and the redemption was 88k i had NO clue how that worked, but I mad phone calls and was set up with a hard money lender because we had 5 days to pay off the loan. I purchased the home with what seemed a miracle. Now Feb 2016 I took a HELOC on my home and bought a duplex 104k. I still make 42k at my Job working crap hours but a paycheck that allows me to support my dreams.

Sorry for the novel,

Nick

I work a job that I love but I make less than $35k a year. I have 2 children and share custody with my ex husband. I currently own 4 homes and an empty lot.

For me I started with the home I purchased after my divorce. I didn't have any cash down but I had good credit and no debt. The second house came in when I found a really good deal a few streets over. At the time the market was down and things weren't selling. I did it "owner finance" and purchased the home plus the lot next door and spent every waking moment rehabbing the house. It took me 4 months because I only had my partner to help and a contractor (after firing 2 bad ones) to help me with the things I had never done. I learned a lot! I did a lot of shopping at thrift stores, Craigslist, habitat for humanity etc. to find a lot of what I needed to fix the house. It turned out amazing and about a year after I purchased it I refinanced to get away from the owner finance and the house appraised at $75k more than I paid and that did not even include the lot next door that I now own free and clear. When I did the refi, I took out $20k extra and used it to buy my next home. You get the idea, now I make enough in rental income that the banks seem willing to lend me anything I need. I also now have a couple of investors that have been impressed with my work, so my next purchase will be made with investor $. The problem now is the market is up significantly and finding the deals Is easier said than done. I am always keeping my eyes out tho, you never know where the next purchase will come from!

I still have that $35k job, to hard to leave the security when I have little mouths to feed. I am aiming to leave my job tho once my children are off to college... Maybe travel to different areas and live in homes as o fix em?? Who knows! Reach for he stars right!?

I consider myself in this boat, maybe even under. My main job pays very low, but I'm always doing work on the side for extra income.

If you make 50k a year, and live below your means, you can stack away cash pretty quickly. Depending on your area this might allow you to buy up quite a few properties. You pay 50-60k in cash, pay for the reno in cash, refi it out and then you can do it again.

if you live with a high overhead, it's up to you to decide your priorities. Living light in the beginning will make a tremendous difference. I got rid of everyhting in my life that was unecessry in order to start building my portfolio. No car payments, low primary mortgage note, no kids, no cable TV, no partying, no

you have to use leverage to buy them. save a lot by doing most of the work. then rinse/repeat.