Real Estate

Well, I Have 5 Rentals Now!

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That’s it. That’s the post. Because I’ve come to realize that I suck at keeping a blog updated, even though so much has happened in such a short amount of time…

  • I picked up 2 rentals just these last few months, in January and February of 2024.
  • I’m now making $1550/mo. in pure cash flow from rental income, and that’s after all expenses and setting aside $200 per property each month for future repairs and maintenance.
  • I went from making $65k/year in 2022 to $90k/year in 2023 and now $105k/year in 2024. Safe to say that I’m shoveling all the money I can into paying off debt AND acquiring more property. Coupled with my partner’s $85k/year, we’re living very comfortably given our choices!
  • My partner also decided it was time they went to college, so that’s what they’re personally working on. Hoping that shiny new degree helps catapult their salary, lol.

It took me a long while to get here, but I’m so happy! Still in a bunch of debt, but that’s been slowly going down over time, and now I have a way to really kick things into high gear. I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to dedicate the rest of 2024 to pay off as much debt as possible, or if I want to focus on picking up another property or two. Perhaps I’ll just go with the flow and work on paying off debt, but if the right opportunity comes along, I’ll seize it. I think that’s best.

Until next time!

Alex

Reflecting On My First Four Years as a Landlord

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I purchased my first rental property in June 2018, and had it rented out by November of that year — almost four years ago to the date. I was 24-years-old with big dreams of creating my own little real estate empire, and a back-of-the-napkin plan on how I’d amass 25 rentals and retire ASAP. Here’s looking back to how I thought things would go, versus how they actually did.

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Progress Report #4 | Long Time No See!

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Man, if I thought it was a long time since I updated this blog the last time I posted, then it’s definitely been forever this time around.

I’ll keep it short and sweet, mostly because I’m lazy and, as a wise man once said, why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?

Not much has really changed since my last post a little over a year ago. I mean, I graduate with my Bachelor’s that summer, I fell in love, got my heart ripped out, and then somehow managed to fall in love again this time with the person who I’m absolutely confident is my soulmate, but who’s keeping track? Definitely not me. Besides, this is a finance blog. So, let’s talk finance.

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Progress Report #3 | I’m Officially a (Successful?) Real Estate Investor!!

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It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog with anything worthwhile, but today I can officially say that I’m a real estate investor! Well, I mean — I could have said that quite some time ago, but, whatever.

Anyway!

So, the rental property that I purchased last year in June — I finally finished the refinance process! As of March 26th, 2019, the personal loan that I took out to purchase the home is paid off and I’ll instead have a nice, low mortgage in its place: a change of $346 to $122 per month! Here are the financial details to break things down on a monthly basis:

Rental Property #1
Rent: $550/mo
PITI: $220/mo
Maintenance Fund: $130/mo
Total Cash Flow: $200/mo

Not a bad deal!

Now I’m working on saving up for my second rental property. I’ve paid off all my credit card debts and the only thing I have left to make monthly payments for (out of my own pocket) is for my car, which should be paid off by the end of the year. Things are moving a lot slower than I’d like, but regardless, I think I’ve managed to put myself in a pretty nice position.

I’m also looking into moving my meager Roth IRA over to M1 Finance instead, which I’ve been using for the past weeks. I really like it. I’ll probably make a post of that in the future.

Lastly, before I make any more major purchases (i.e., another property) I want to save up a small $3,000 safety net. I’ve only got $500 saved up so far, so… yeah, it’s gonna take a little while since my paychecks aren’t exactly the biggest, haha. But hey, that just means I’ll have plenty of time to let my credit recover! Taking out the 19k personal loan to purchase the property, having to get my credit ran to get insurance rates and to refinance the loan, and also opening up an additional credit card caused it to drop from 803 to 750. Yikes.

From here on out, I’m going to keep track of my general financial health in each progress report! I don’t think I’ll include my physical “assets” such as properties, vehicles, etc. since their worth fluctuates a lot. Instead, I’ll include any money that is generated from them!

NP.

Financials | March 2019
Accounts
Savings: $500
Stocks: $188
Retirement: $2818
Income
Employment: $1500/mo*
Rental: $200/mo
Stocks: $0

*I purposely underestimate my monthly employment income due to me taking up to 6 unpaid days off per month for my illness.

 

NP’s FIRST 5-Step Financial Plan

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I know, I know — I still need to write up my next progress report post. Before I get to that, though, I want to write up something on a new little thing I’m going to be tackling from this day on: small, doable, 5-step financial plans. Here’s my first one:

  1. Get mortgage on RENTAL PROPERTY
  2. Pay off DISCOVER loan
  3. Save $3,000 for EMERGENCY FUND
  4. Pay off CREDIT CARD debt
  5. Buy 2nd RENTAL PROPERTY

Yeah, it’s a pretty basic, but it’s my plan going forward: a simple, and most importantly manageable, 5-step financial plan to help get myself back on track and chugging along!

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