Hi guys, I’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding my real estate journey, how I started, and also how to generally start investing and build wealth. This journey has truly been a rewarding one and I am happy to share it with all of you so we can all continue to win financially.
Our Motivation
My husband and I first decided to go into real estate investing during the economic downturn that occurred in Houston in 2015. It was an extremely scary and nerve-wracking experience to fathom that either one or both of us would lose our full time 9-5 jobs at the time. It was at that point that we realized that our whole livelihoods depended on someone else, it depended on someone else saying you are worth this job and this paycheck. It was something that never crossed our minds before, however, when this realization dawned on us it felt as though we were not in control of our own finances. This is when we decided to start our journey of financial freedom and begin building our businesses. It was at this time I became very serious about influencing and Ibk, my husband, got his real estate license and managed properties while also investing in stocks.
How We Started
My husband and I’s first property was actually our home we bought when we first got married. We were a newly married couple and wanted to get a place together. We had initially been thinking of renting, however, ultimately decided on buying. We ended up buying a townhome in east downtown which has appreciated significantly. When we decided to start buying more properties, Ibk decided to get his license so we could save money and actually use that 3% the realtor gets as a negotiation tool in closing.
Why Get A License?
A realtor is someone who is part of the National Association of Realtors while a real estate agent is someone who is not part of this association but has a license and can sell homes to people. Getting your real estate license is not exactly hard, it’s time consuming, however, it’s not hard. There are routes to making it less time consuming, however, that costs money. Ibk has had his license for about 4 years now and throughout our investing journey. It’s really beneficial as when you have a license, you are able to use the 3% commission as leverage for your negotiation. This has been great since we started investing in real estate and has made the process a lot more cohesive and smoother.
Hurdles
Although real estate investing is rewarding, there are definitely some roadblocks Ibk and I have had to overcome over the years. Some people have property managers, which is beneficial in the sense that you don’t need to deal with the people 1 on 1 when you have property managers. However, Ibk manages our properties so we have definitely experienced some hurdles in that sense. Dealing with people can be hard, especially when you encounter outright disrespectful people. For example, we had a lady that refused to pay her rent and flaunt in my husband’s face that she would be living in our property for free. She even threatened to send her son to beat up my husband- now, that’s crazy talk. Besides some of those types of interactions, we’ve had a relatively smooth journey.
Strategy
We mostly house minority communities by providing good housing for people who are having a hard time finding housing for one reason or another. Types of housing range for A – C class. A class housing is the high end housing, this is the type of home you would be looking to get for yourself personally, meanwhile, C class housing is the bare minimum housing in certain developing neighborhoods. A majority of our rental properties are in that space. Some properties we own include a 6 unit gated community, a triplex, and we have even done a flip at some point.
Plans Going Forward
This journey has been filled with so much growth and learning. We currently own 15 properties and honestly, going forward, we just plan to keep building and growing. We want to get to a point where we have our businesses and investments fund our livelihoods and put us in a position where we no longer need our 9-5 jobs. We aren’t big spenders and plan on just continuing to grow our portfolio and trusting in our abilities to take risks, apply to knowledge from our past mistakes, and believe in our outcomes.