What do you want to invest in? There are single family homes, multi-family homes, condos, vacation homes, commercial properties such as office spaces and lodging and many more. Consider your situation and see what the road ahead will be. Weigh what heavily interests you and begin the search to find a property that will cash flow. For me, I am searching for a multi-family home, specifically a fourplex. My goal is to house hack the residence while I continue to serve in the military. How will you fund your first investment? There are plenty of conventional and unconventional ways of funding your first deal. You can take out a loan (Conventional Mortgages [30 year fixed rate or 15 year variable rate], FHA Loan, VA Loan) or aim for an unconventional method using the OPM (Other people’s money) method or perhaps a hard money loan (googling “methods similar to OPM in real estate”) will give you plenty to read upon. For me, I am planning to utilize the VA loan in funding my first investment. The property needs repairs, what should you do? If the property needs repairs, you need to prioritize building relationships with local contractors and finding out how much the repairs will run you and budgeting for that and then some. Extra is better than coming up short. Do your due diligence in finding the right contractors, speak to past customers and ask to see their past work. Quality Quality Quality, because your tenants will definitely test its durability. Do you want to manage the property or outsource to a property management company? This is a big concern for plenty of people. They are afraid of tenant nightmares where the tenants know who owns the property and will hassle them relentlessly. Do you want to be the person they go to when the property needs repairs, or deal with late payments. Outsourcing the duties to a property management company will solve these situations, but at a price. Budgeting roughly 10% of the rental income for this expenditure will be required. Now will it be a deal breaker for you, that’s a question to ask yourself. Doing your due diligence with finding a reputable PM company will be of extreme importance. Don’t be in the dark with your investment property, find a company that will communicate and get the job done in a timely manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijlN7d8wG-Y Hey guys! Made a overview video on my latest BRRRR deal. Hope you enjoy :) -Nico

The question of where to find good deals comes up constantly among us, so I thought I would share something that helped me a lot. Antonio mentioned that he doesn’t mind paying his realtor a good commission since they constantly provide him with great deals, whether off-market or otherwise. And that’s just it: finding a realtor who is willing to put in the work can make all the difference. While identifying a market that aligns with your investing goals is paramount, finding a good realtor in that area is just as important. When I focused on my first property, I started by choosing the right market for me, then found a reliable realtor, and finally a fantastic investment-driven property manager. Coincidentally, property managers in Florida must also be licensed realtors. My PM was not only a property manager but also an investor, though luckily in a different strategy, so we didn’t compete. He sent weekly investor-focused emails with properties he deemed worthy, many of which were off-market due to his PM network. Since this firm focuses on investment properties, they knew when and if another client wanted to sell or dispose of a property for whatever reason. My first property was an off-market deal managed by my PM, who sent it to me after understanding my position. After thorough analysis and due diligence, I dove in and closed on my first real estate investment property. This property has been invaluable for testing all the reading, learning, and analyzing I did, and the knowledge gained from the purchasing process has been priceless. I will share the lessons I learned from this experience in a separate post. In summary, building strong relationships with your realtor is crucial and most times your only direct contact to the area you are investing in. If possible, meet with them in person and be transparent about your goals. This way, they’ll keep you in mind when new opportunities arise.

Hello everyone, Antonio asked me to share from my experience as a home remodeling project manager, what are some of the top things to remodel which will raise the value of the home. 1. Flooring. Prioritize bathrooms and kitchens, but try to continue the same floor throughout the home. These days it seems like vinyl-plank flooring is the way to go. 2. Tiled walls in bathrooms. Usually limited to tub or shower area, (and in the shower area it will include the floor) but could include more of the room according to design and budget. 3. Updated kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. Usually paired with: 4. Quality counter-tops in kitchen and bathrooms. These days it seems like Quartz is the way to go. 5. Modern windows. * Design and consistency are important. Any changes that will contribute to that, in all areas, are good. like Plumbing and Electrical fixtures, paint etc. PS. More home. Although it may not be applicable in all properties, building an adittion, expanding the home, or building separate ADU will raise the value tremendously. * Clean and organized front and back yard. Also not applicable for all properties, but maintaining a clean and organized back and front yard area helps a lot. Having hard surfaces like concrete/pavers/tile etc. VS soft areas like grass and bushes will have a higher value and will be easier to maintain and keep up a good look for long-term.

One of the highest-value activities that I started doing before my investing career took off, is to work on my psychology/mindset. Just about everything in life requires your mental readiness first before it can happen physically. This is one of my all time favorites. Intuitively, many people want to avoid problems. To make matters worse, the human brain is literally wired to seek comfort, avoid risks and achieve homeostasis/equilibrium. So what we need to do is to actively work on increasing our ability to deal with discomfort. Like Tony Robbins says, the quality of your life is directly proportional to your ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Here is an example from my own life. Right now, I have the following on my plate (Just real estate): 1- Moving 1 deal I signed last week through to acquisition phase and get it to closing 2- Creating scope of work and lining up crews for that deal 3- Renovating 2 other properties 4- Turnover 3 other vacant properties 5- Lining up tenants for 4 total doors 6- Refinancing 3 properties. 7- Finishing 2023 RE taxes 8- Negotiate pricing on 2 deals in the pipeline (made offers last week) and verifying all rehab numbers 9- Exploring new operational models for RE 10- Hiring and training new VA 11- Getting building permits completed for 1 full gut-rehab property 12- Section 8 rent re-evaluation 13- Section 8 process evaluation 14- Preparing a turnover for upcoming vacancy in Sep 15- Finishing 4 maintenance requests 16- Re-evaluating acquisition pipeline for 2024 Probably missed another 5-6 tasks there. The list usually keeps growing. Now, I am not really sharing this to impress you but rather to explain a very important concept. Success in anything in life comes with a price. In order to succeed long term, you have to be willing to pay that price everyday consistently. The good news is, unlike inflation, the price tag to success gets progressively cheaper. How? Well, when you start seeking problems to resolve , your ability to handle problems (and usually stress as well) dramatically increases. Your psyche and your understanding of your own capacity to resolve problems also expands. Early in my life, getting a driver license was a big problem. Buying a car was a huge problem. Figuring out how to live on my own was a big problem. Moving to a new country or city was insurmountable problem. As you move up the chain, and get competent at resolving these problems, suddenly they aren't perceived as problems. Now they are experiences that made you grow. Building wealth using Real estate assets is no different.