Full Time Investing!
I would imagine that the ultimate goal of most of us on this site is "financial freedom", whatever that might mean to each person.
For me, financial freedom would mean quitting the job and investing full time.
To all of you full time investors...how did you do it?
What paths did you take to get to where you no longer needed the "9 to 5"?
What are your success stories?
Was there a turning point or a particular method that broke it open for you?
This could be very helpful for those of us who look forward to getting to where you are.
Thanks
I wrote quite a few articles along these lines on my site.
I quit my 80k a year job to do real estate investing fulltime. Best decision I ever made. Highly reccomend having a cushion and spending the time to create a massive network of people before you make the jump
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Thank you, Ray,
I went on your site...I will fill out the investor form.
Joe
Do you feel confident that investing will pay your bills? Whats the worst thing that will happen, you will have to go back to your prior industry. If you are a complete novice, you could indeed get burned and lose your shirt.
Good luck!
STEIN S
I had an executive job, but I was just working to make money for other people.
3 Months ago I left my job and I LOVE IT!
I believe that bgrossnickle, on this board is a full-time buy and hold investor. I could be wrong. IMHO, the key to the buy and hold investor to go full time is to pay off your loans as quickly as possible. This is by no means a quick process as you know. I would suggest the book Rental Houses for the Successful Small Investor:
http://www.amazon.com/Rental-Houses-Successful-Small-Investor/dp/0966469119/sr=8-1/qid=1167761621/ref=sr_1_1/002-9407557-1315261?ie=UTF8&s=books
The author was full time buy and hold in ten years. BTW, she is not a get rich quick guru and answers questions via amazon.
About 4 years ago I took 70k out of the stock market and bought 7 rentals within 2 years. I quickly realized that I could not make significant money as a landlord. I also realized that I enjoyed buying houses and fixing them up and wanted to keep doing it. That is when I started to buy and sell.
Rentals are like your 401k - they are along term wealth building strategy. Buy and Sells are your income.
I have about 18 rentals and use them for wealth building and for equity lines. I no longer need to use hard money to buy and sell houses. But it is my buy and sells that allowed me the income to quit my job in Aug 2006 and has allowed me to continue to keep and increase my rentals. I need the income that buy and sells provides.
In August 2006 I quit my job as a computer programmer for a large bank. At the time I quit I had been a landlord for 4 years and a buy and sell investor for 2 years. Had probably bought and sold 30 houses. I had also had a personal assistent who had worked with my for 1 year. I have good credit and have always been a good saver so when I quit my job I had lots of reserves in 401K money, equity in my rentals, and money in the bank. So I am not stressed about paying the bills. I still have the personal assistent and would not do this job without her.
My cousin has made a fortune as a landlord in Chapel Hill NC. He started 20 years ago and has 150 units. So he has made it work. But he is an execptionally frugal person. He also had the housing prices of 20 years ago in his favor and Chapel Hill is a college town with many older homes that the city lets you split into multiple rentals without any hassles. So it can be done.
Frugal is the Key. Buy Hold Save. Starting out on this road its best to try to limit and eliminate all revolving debt including cards, credit cards etc. Right now I am only carrying debt on my two rentals and my primary residence.
It helps to prepare
Ray, Bg and Bargain,
The last six months market is sooo slow.
Can you guy assess the market at this time?
I know Ray wrote play the card players and not the cards. Jax market may be still hot, but I doubt about other FL market. Pinellas (public)recorded about 700 sale for year 2006, that is way low. (Can not even find good current comps)
I have houses that I had to keep longer, inventory is high
in 2007, Do you do the same volume like last two years?
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Bargain76,
Thanks it is a good strategy, this forum really help.
my current plan is to do the work myself whenever I can to reduce cost and avoid major rehab (just minor rehab).
Mrito,
Do not learn from that guy, he changes his plan, he has a good system, but his business plan is changing, his focus now is on seminar, just my one cent.
Contact your local HUD office. They can provide the fair market rents for your area. You cannot increase the rent until the end of the lease. They can also tell you when you can increase rents - they need to know what the rent is for your unit.
Thanks finniganps,
My renew effective 8/01/06. Is it too late to send out the letter to section 8 ? BTW, iam also in CA (San Jose)
http://www.huduser.org/datasets/fmr.html
Sorry about that, was org and not com. Thanks for the link.
I went to http://www.huduser.org/datasets/fmr.html.
Is this just for section 8 housing FMR?
I redid my own bathroom about 6 years ago. I have teenage boys so it is used all the time. I installed the fiberglass tub and ceramic tile on the walls and it has help beautifully.
good luck.
I like the one piece acrylic fiberglass tub-shower units.
No seams, no leakage. Looks great for a long time, repairable in case of major abuse.
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I agree with Bargain76. I just installed one and it was reasonably priced, easy to install and looks good.
Coated steel chips easily, and can rust through cracks. Worst choice. Cast Iron lasts forever, but is expensive. However this does qualify as "bulletproof", unlike the other choices. I did have one shatter like glass when a full 500 gallon redwood tank fell on it once, but that is worse than a bullet. Lasted over 100 years before that, though, many of them outside in a pasture.
One piece plastic or fiberglass is great, but quality (read thickness, essentially) varies. It can be very difficult to get one through the door, however, in which case a three piece enclosure is the solution.
Chris
If you are going to install with a wall kit my only choice would be Vikrell material by Sterling, lowes sells and is more durable then other fiberglass units.
If you are putting tile on walls
first choice is cast iron
close second is Americast by american standard
I own cheap duplexes in Virginia and Buffalo,NY. The key is not to go too cheap. I bought properties for about 30k in Buffalo that are not in good areas and I am having some problems. I found out that if I would of paid just a little more in other neighborhoods I could have had better tennats and better areas. You need to get a good realtor and more imprtantly a good property manager in the area your looking. They will tell you what to buy and not buy. The property manager is going to be very helpful because he knows that if he tells you somethings good then he is stuck managing it for the next however many years. and he is going to always have to hear you say "I thought you said this was a good area with good tennats?" As far as the age just make sure you have a good handy man contact that does work inexpensively or you could get nickel and dimed to death. Also get an inspection on whatever you buy to make sure you know what your buying. Good luck.