Are you an HGTV fanatic? Have you ever been interested in flipping homes? Or, do you find that many people don't want to give you the straightforward “how to" of real estate investing? If so, I’d like to take you with me on my journey to becoming a real estate investor! Before we get started, here’s a little information about me:
I’m a northern girl who has lived in the south for about twelve years. I’m a single mother of a beautiful baby who keeps me going. And I have a finance degree + a deep yearning to teach others how to be financially successful. (I’ll leave it at that for now.)
I’ve always wanted to invest in real estate but HGTV depicts the process as something only the very wealthy can do. Again, I’m a single mother on a single income so I thought I’d never get the chance to live the “HGTV” lifestyle, but with the help of a wonderful mentor, I was able to start my journey! The reason I stress being on a single income is so that others can feel a little more confident in getting started regardless of their financial situation. Now, I didn’t just stumble upon this opportunity – it took a lot of preplanning and premeditation to get to this point. What do I mean by preplanning, you ask? Well, it all started a few years ago when I began budgeting my entire life and really learning who I was in the self-discipline category. I’m in my mid 20’s and I’ll just say that self-discipline wasn’t (+ sometimes still isn't) my strong suit. At the time of creating the most thorough budget that I knew how I didn’t know that my ultimate goal was real estate investing. I just knew that I wanted to build my savings to create a cushion if I ever was in a bind. We’ll go into more detail about actually budgeting in a later post.
So at this point, each of my six credit cards were maxed out and my credit score reflected that. Within my budget, I wrote out a debt payoff schedule that outlined how I would reduce all of my credit card balances until they were under thirty percent of the limit. I was a finance novice, indeed, but I get an E for effort, right? Nonetheless, I experienced a lot of hiccups along the way and often got off track, but I’d jump right back on the train whenever I realized I was on a detour!
As I began paying down my credit card balances, I watched my credit score slowly increase on the Credit Karma app but my savings wasn’t even at $1000. If you’ve got a decent credit score + decent savings, you're a force to be reckoned with! Having both is key. I’ll be honest with you…take advantage of your tax returns and work your butt off to build your savings as fast as you can. The saying “Time is Money” really holds true because the longer you wait to invest, the more money you’re missing out on.
Eventually, I had about $10,000 in savings and I went out on a limb and applied for a mortgage loan. I truly had no hope of getting approved, but low and behold! I was approved for $200,000!
I mean, words can’t express how shocked I was. But the question was, “what do I do now?”
The answer?! HOUSE HACKING
I absolutely love the idea of house hacking and all the benefits of it. In short, house hacking is when you purchase a multi-unit property, you live in one unit, and rent out the others. This gives you all of the benefits of purchasing a single-family home with the most favorable loan conditions – the best being the 3.5% down payment and potential down payment assistance that many first-time homebuyers qualify for.
If any of this resonates with you, I'm here to show you the light at the end of the tunnel! Consider me an open book of all the things I know and will learn.
I don’t mean to leave you hanging when I know you’re just itching for more information! But, I’ll keep it brief and go into more detail in my next post.
For now, I have one request for you. Think long and hard about your goals and write down your reason for wanting to invest. My reason is to generate passive income so that I can buy whatever I want, do whatever I want, and one day, be able to quit my job! Generational wealth is key!
Takeaways: Anybody can do this. All it takes is a little self-discipline, a concrete goal, and desire!