Categories
Real Estate

The First House I Bought

Nice trampoline, huh!?

It was August of 2018, and after months of stumbling and failing, I finally landed my first real estate deal. I was unbelievably excited, but it didn’t come without its issues. This group of sellers (7 heirs – all siblings) were rather difficult to rally up and get on the same page. We had agreed on a price, and it was a fair price for both parties, the house was in terrible shape. Everyone seemed all fine and happy…until about a week before we were supposed to close, when indecision and greed kicked in. All of a sudden one sibling wanted a little more, and then two siblings wanted to instead keep the house and fix it up themselves. This was never going to happen, it needed over $60,000 of work. Anyways, luckily a few of the other siblings talked some sense into them and we finally made it to the closing table (on my birthday chance has it). Deal done?!

Not quite, all 8 of us were at the closing table, and when the closing attorney got to the last page of the closing documents, it was relayed to them that they would receive their funds in about an hour after they took the signed, completed closing documents to get recorded at the local courthouse. You’d maybe assume to get a “sure, that’s totally understandable” response from the siblings. Of course, that’s not how it went down. They were adamant that they get their funds immediately after they signed their names on the closing documents. Now…I’m not sure how much you know about real estate, but this just simply does not happen. It has to go through a rather quick process called recording which occurs at the county courthouse. This basically is the official stamp of approval of the real estate transaction.

After hearing this information from the attorney, they were just about to walk out without signing the last document. There I was, speechless at the closing table – I didn’t know what to say. 30 minutes prior, I was expecting to have a rather nice start to my birthday, buying my first flip.

After a few minutes of back and forth from all parties, they finally agreed to move on with the transaction. A wave of relief swept over me. Finally…I had bought my first house!

The funniest thing about this wasn’t anything mentioned above, but at the fact that I was freaking out after I had just bought this. I spoke with a fellow investor, telling him what I just did and how much of a task it was going to be and how I got a case of cold feet. Long story short, he ended up offering to take this off my hands for a small profit to me. I shrugged…okay, let’s do that. 
Needless to say, my first flip did not occur with that house, however, it taught me an extremely valuable lesson. This works.

Categories
Real Estate

How I Got My Start In Real Estate

As an NC native, I graduated from NC State University. During the summer of my junior year, I was working at an internship, doing one of the most mind-numbing tasks of all time – data entry. It was only an 8 week position: 5 days a week, 8 hours a day…nothing crazy or intense at all. The opposite, rather. However, about 3 or 4 weeks into the job, I remember thinking to myself, “okay…how do I ensure I *never* end up in any other position like this again.” That was a powerful and motivational blow to my then 20-year-old brain. This sparked a journey of all things financial on YouTube. After stumbling upon videos about stock investing, day-trading, selling products on Amazon…you name it – I finally stumbled upon something that really resonated with me. Real Estate Investing.

I discovered a passion through real estate and how powerful of a machine it can be to create financial freedom. Once I figured this out, I was all in. I started listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, books…you name it. Then, I had a brief learning hiatus where real life set in and I was about to graduate college and of course…needed to find a ‘real’ job. I couldn’t just tag myself as a real estate investor right out of college with less than $1,000 in my bank account 🙂

With the real world came a job at Amazon in California. This was a rather early interview in my senior year of college, and since I got the job, it turned out to be the only interview I participated in. It was one of those, ‘you accept the job and we’ll send you where we want you go to’ situations. Once I found out it was in California, I was practically sold (hence not doing any more interviews).

The first 6 months or so at Amazon were spent with real estate in the very distant background, with my new position being the forefront of my focus and energy. After getting into the swing of things and becoming more comfortable with my new role, I started to dive in, once again, to learning all things real estate. Again, listening to podcasts and audiobooks as much as I could, usually on my hour-long commute from Newport Beach to Moreno Valley. I also found time to cram in knowledge as I was cooking, working out, or just sitting on the beach. I was certain this was the path for me.

Fast forward a year or so, and I found myself really disliking my current position at Amazon. It’s a great company to work for, it truly is, it just wasn’t for me. At one point I had a realization. That realization was “I would actually rather be an Uber Driver, than to continue at my position at one of the largest and most successful companies in the world.” Once this had set in, I knew it was time to begin making my exit. Nothing against rideshare driving by any means, I was certain my near future would some driving shifts!

I quit Amazon in February 2018, and with a slightly larger bank account this time, jumped full-time into real estate. Well…after an obligatory trip to Europe, several escapades to Florida and a few ski trips to Colorado, of course. I was foolishly acting like I had already retired and the reality was I had yet to make a cent in real estate. Oh well, sometimes you just have to let loose a little when you quit your job :).

Anyways, back to the point. I really didn’t start my real estate journey full-time around April/May of 2018. After months of stumbling and failing, I finally landed my first real estate deal. I was unbelievably excited…