All Forum Posts by: Wesley Mullen

I'm sure this has been said often, but the easiest way is to set an auto-deposit to go from your checking's to savings or investment account. This could be either just from paychecks, or set a criteria to take a portion of any deposit over a specific amount. For example, anytime a deposit hits my account over $1000, $100 automatically gets moved to my savings. 

Another less efficient method is finding some sort of side-hustle to make additional money. This can be difficult to find something that is worth the time invested, but can pay dividends. I did meal prep for people for nearly a year, but soon realized I was spending too much time on it vs the profits I was actually receiving. I'm now learning a new skill/trade and while I learn, I'm also helping out and earning a few extra bucks along the way. This money, instead of saving, is going straight to my debt (admittedly a truck loan), to get it paid off quicker. 

Where there's a will, there's a way!

This question has so many possibilities! When I first think of a dream property, it would be a primary residence on the water - most likely in Florida (TB area??). I already have a type of house in mind with a very contemporary, 2-story design with an upstairs balcony facing the water. Of course it would be nice to have access to a dock for a boat too! Another dream property from a real estate perspective would be a lake house, with private dock, that we could both use ourselves as well as STR. This is actually something we are wanting to look into further in the near future, but I would like to get a couple more LTRs in our portfolio before we branch out to STRs. Finally, an end-goal dream property, again from a real estate property would be acquiring a long term NNN-lease to have steady passive income without much headache of day to day expense or frequent turnover.

Lots of dreams and properties to conquer! 

This is an awesome story! Thank you for sharing. We are considering attempting an STR (lakehouse), but are unsure how to start as far going about infrastructure (cleaning, maintenance, etc). Did you have much trouble outsourcing to local vendors with your STRs? What would you recommend as a starting point to look for in potential STRs? Ideally, we would like to use it ourselves occasionally too, so would consider 10% down as a Vacation home. Would love any insight you have to offer! Oh, and Boomer Sooner! :)

@Alicia Marks

I was always curious about real estate investing, but I always associated it with the wealthy and never thought I could afford to do it. After my brother began to look into it more as a way to invest in passive income, we began to self-educate and I realized it was possible. It was going to be a vehicle towards building wealth, passive income, and eventually, lead to the financial freedom away from the 9-5. Thus, my main "Why" is the freedom of time and ability to build wealth long term. I want to be able to travel and spend my time as I wish instead of being stuck in the Corporate lifestyle where I'm allowed 3 weeks vacay. I want to be wealthy, not rich. And I want to pass my success down to future generations. This is my Why.

I agree with this. When we first started in REI last year, the first thing we did was write our goals down which was focused around cash flow and how many properties we needed to aquire to reach it. Since we are working as 50/50 partners, our cashflow is actually split, so really it's double the amount of properties needed. We're one year in and have one door. Idk if it's unrealistic, but it will definitely take a lot of time to grow, hopefully at an exponential rate. Perhaps getting into commercial investments might increase the rate of return. Time will tell.

@Henry Clark I think this is the post that you were referencing, so wanted to tag so I can keep it for historical purposes. A lot of great info in here!

I echo everyone else about it's never too late to start, as I'm just starting myself. However, when starting out, the best advice that I've heard through BP and others is to start local. It's the market you know the best and provides boots on the ground vs getting into somewhere that you aren't familiar with. Essentially, in most cases it should prevent lest risk when starting out. There should always be deals within at least an hour or two from your region. Best of luck starting out! Research, reach out, connect, and take action!

Thank you for the reference @Bryan Mitchell

@Henry Clark Interesting enough, checking out your page looks like you do work in Iowa! We're from the Clarinda, IA area originally. Small world. 

My interest is more driven to the boat storage aspect given the high demand here, but still understand the need for larger driveway widths to back trailers in. The storage facility we currently use has a rate of $110/month, so this seems significantly less then the rates you mentioned. I'll search your post though. Even during season, many people (ourselves included) still store the boat in the storage due to HOAs/living situations or dealing with severe weather. Therefore I wonder if vacancy wouldn't be near as bad in-season. 

However, you bring up a lot of good points about the capital involved to start up such a facility. Do you have any estimates on what it would take to start up a facility, ground up? (Say 20-30 units?) It definitely seems like a much bigger project then what a newbie should probably be undertaking. But it's still something to think about, maybe even on a smaller scale to begin. My partner/brother has also thought about building a shop that he can use a portion for his own business and rent out the rest, so this could be an alternative way to take a smaller step towards a larger facility. 

Appreciate you taking the time to respond!

We used Homerun Inspections with our property - it included the termite inspection, but we didn't have to worry about the other items either. I personally haven't heard of the ones you listed so can't offer any insight on them. 

Happy Saturday!

For awhile now, I've had an idea in my mind that a boat/rv storage facility would be a great investment opportunity in our area. We have a wakeboat and know first hand how hard it is to get on the waiting list to find an available unit - i.e. demand is high. I was curious if anyone else on here had a boat/rv storage facility and what are some key requirements to either A) looking for land to build new and what some of those associated costs would look like or B) what type of existing commercial unit would be an ideal starting place to start keeping an eye out for. 

Honestly, I know a perfect spot for such a facility, only a couple of miles from the lake. The building on the property actually just had a fire, so I presume it will need to be demolished. I'm just not sure about zoning/building requirements on if it would even be allowed. Additionally, I'm not sure about the Capital aspect on how much it would take to invest in such a facility. It's one of those things that seems perfect in my head, but not sure how realistic it is at this present time. Though I know as GC (Grant Cardone) says, you need to be unreasonable to be successful. 

I would be interested in any info related to boat/rv storage that anyone has to offer to increase my knowledge in this area!

Thanks in advance, 

Wes