Nerds Guide to FI

From stumbling into house hacking to building an Airbnb empire, Travis from @theyoungretireeby33 has a LOT to share with us. Travis began his journey to FI after reluctantly reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and his eyes were opened to different types of investing. At 24 he bought his first home and rented out 2 of the bedrooms-and realized he could live for free! Living in Orlando, he realized that short term rentals were where the money was at. Fast forward to today, and Travis is an expert in short-term rentals, and lucky for us we get to pick his brain.

We get real about Airbnb ownership, namely: what are the odds my house will get trashed? Travis explains how you can screen potential guests like you would screen a tenant, why your cleaning crew will be your best friend, and what to do when a guest steals your throw pillows (his answer might surprise you).  After hosting more than 2000 guests, Travis learned from first-hand experience how to handle situations and he shares the small touches that earn him great reviews. We chat about vacation home loans and financing, property management and the processes he uses to make things easy. He shares the software he uses to automate and outsource his bookings! I'm not going to lie, now I just want to Airbnb something.

You can find Travis on Instagram @theyoungretireeby33 and check out his guide to Airbnb hosting!

We’re kicking off season 3 with Bonnie Galam of Landlord Law School™! Bonnie became interested in real estate investing during law school, and now self-manages 100+ units with her husband, along with her own firm, podcast, and website, offering templates and trainings for new investors. WHEW...its not clear when she sleeps. We talk about her journey into investing and using the BRRR (buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat) strategy. Though we both agree it feels like everyone and their mother is getting into real estate, we know there are still deals to be found! I ask Bonnie what its really like working primarily with student housing: Do the tenants pay their rent? Is everything just always covered in beer?  But it sounds like student housing isn’t as intimating as I thought (although wood floors are a MUST).

I have a list of legal questions for Bonnie including:

- “I just went online and formed my own LLC…is that terrifying?”

-Do you need an LLC per property?

-When’s the best time to form your LLC?

-How should I tighten up my lease terms?

We take a deep dive into LLCs and I ask her about the Series LLC. Bonnie teaches offensive asset protection methods, like getting everything in writing, good contracts, estate planning, etc. I learn that you can often get lease templates from attorneys and its more cost effective than having your attorney look at your existing lease. Every year Bonnie does an “asset protection self-audit” and asks herself “What didn’t work this year? How can I tighten up my lease to prevent this going forward?”. Bonnie is a wealth of information and offers so much information through her podcast, website and her Landlord Law School™ included in the links below. I have a feeling you’ll want to listen to this one and take notes! I feel smarter now after recording this podcast with such as fellow boss lady, love her and some killer #lawyershit

Find Bonnie:

https://www.bonniegalam.com/

podcast: Good Bones Real Estate Investing

Tools Mentioned:

https://kajabi.com/

www.avail.co

www.appfolio.com

www.anchor.com

This is a complete “pinch me” moment. I am thrilled I was able to connect with the one, the only, Paula Pant! In my eyes Paula is the Michael Jordan of the FI community (hence episode #23…see what I did there?) and I am beyond excited to share this conversation with you today. If you aren’t already a giant fan of Paula Pant of Afford Anything, you will be when we are finished with this episode. Paula has created a blog, a podcast, a community and now a comprehensive real estate investing course that takes her students through the entire investing process. Paula talks about beginning in real estate-one of many different investments she uses to achieve FI. Paula takes us through her most recent deal in Indianapolis from start to finish and we are able to cover so much ground. If you’ve been curious about out-of-state real estate investing this is the perfect episode to listen to. We talk about Paula’s “1% rule” (article linked below) and what we look for when starting to search for properties. Filtering through criteria is like filtering through a dating app. Sometimes you need to adjust your criteria and broaden your search before you “swipe left”. Paula takes us through how she was connected in a new market with investors and networking. She guides us through the negotiation process-and knowing when to let go of a property. We learn what an “escalation clause” is and how she utilized it in her process. We go through our thoughts on running the numbers-we are both “cash on cash returns” haters. Paula is a pro at zooming out to see the bigger picture. She analyzes how these investments contribute to wealth in the LONG term, while looking at the short-term opportunities. Paula has a comprehensive spreadsheet as a part of her course-which piqued my interest to track this. Her course covers EVERYTHING you’d need to get started in real estate including: finding a deal or creating a deal; local or out of state investing; financing; renovation vernacular; building your team; and buying negotiation. Enjoy the episode, I know you’re going to love it! Links and Resources https://affordanything.com/one-percent-rule-gross-rent-multiplier/ @paulapant on Instagram Podcast creation platform: https://anchor.fm or download the app Property Management Platform: www.avail.co

IT IS MAY 8.  You know what that means?  Um, sooo it is my BIRTHDAY.  YAY, 32.  I think this is ABOUT to be my greatest year yet (despite my strong belief that it is all rather blah on the birthday front after age 21).  So, I thought there would just be no better way to celebrate than to share this AWESOME podcast with my newest BFFs around the IG #reicommunity -- Ali & Josh aka @theficouple -- if you do not know these two yet, you are about to LOVE them.

Their journey to financial independence began in 2017. Ali was about to graduate from her master’s program, and decided to add up how much they owed in student loans. It totaled over $100k! Like I did, Ali and Josh found Dave Ramsey and started the baby steps according to the total money makeover. They were planning a wedding, starting to make progress, and then Josh was laid off. Eventually they decided there had to be a faster way to pay off debt and eliminate expenses. Enter Bigger Pockets and Set for Life. Josh and Ali found their first house hack in 2018 and learned that sometimes no matter how great the numbers look on paper—location trumps all. By 2019 they had paid off $50k of student loans!

In this episode we dive into the ins and outs of FHA loans and live-in flips (windows are EXPENSIVE), the tenant screening process, and how far you can go with networking and referrals. We discuss the real estate snowball and how we feel about using debt responsibly. Josh shares his advice for first time investors that is surprisingly simple (hint: is your personal budget in order?).

If you came here looking for beauty tips, I share the best ways to deal with paint in your hair (occupational hazard). We discuss imposter syndrome and how much we grow as we go through this investing journey.

We had a great conversation that I know so many of you will relate to. Enjoy the episode!

Today I’m sharing a PART 2 of my  conversation with Joe and Jenn DelleFave. If you haven’t listened to episode 18 yet, I would listen to that one first. There was just too much great content to edit this down to one episode!

Jenn shares that the key to talking to people with confidence was creating a script for herself (genius) and the couple plans to create courses to help you do the same. Joe explained how Covid 19 pushed him into going “all-in” on their business. With 23 active deals (as of this episode) at one time, we talk about some of their best practices as business owners. They share how they knew when it was time to outsource some of their work, and what shifting from working IN their business to working ON their business looks like. Having a winning team is a crucial element for their success, as well as automation. They take time at the beginning of each month to reflect and write down their “wins” from the previous month—LOVE this idea. As long as you’re moving forward you are probably making more progress than you are giving yourself credit for. Jen talks about blocking her time out in her calendar, including family and personal time and creating boundaries. She also advises taking advantage of hiring an accountant. Its just SO worth it. Anything they can do to streamline and automate their business they do and continue to evaluate what's working for them. 

I probe them on their personal finances and relationship to debt. We talk more about the advantages of their business model-and the fact that all of their debt is non-recourse debt.

Most advice on creative financing is now outdated and things are changing quickly. Joe and Jenn have been fine tuning their skills with mentors, coaches and mastermind groups and are getting ready to share courses with you!

Follow Jenn and Joe on Instagram @jenndellefave @josephdellefave

Resources:

https://www.avail.co/

https://www.patlive.com/

So…you bought a rental property. Now what?

David from @DIY_Landlord is back on the pod, and we are diving into the ins and outs of managing your properties. There is a TON of incredible advice shared in this episode, so I marked the highlights for you. Have a pen and paper ready and be prepared to reference this again and again. I am beyond excited to share this with you all!

[3:19] Understand the laws—GOOGLE is your best friend here.

-Try searching things from the tenant perspective, ie “how to stop my landlord from evicting me in xyz state”.

- Know the basic safety regulations (smoke alarms, lead paint, etc).

- How much notice do you need to give? When can you change rent? The more you understand, the less you’ll have to fear!

[7:48] Tips on inheriting tenants:

-understand who your tenants are before you even purchase the property

-set expectations and provide guidelines for tenants (rent payment, what you are doing for them and what you aren’t)

-use a letter of introduction: there’s a good sample on Bigger Pockets

[13:55] Make sure your accountant loves you:

-use a sheet for every property and list out your expense categories separately, including capital expenditures

-pros/cons of accounting software: buildium, app folio, quickbooks (don’t worry excel or google works just fine for me)

[26:30] Get informed delivery for your PO box and thank us later :)

[28:10] Have a list of major contractors ready

-you need HVAC, electrician, plumber, handy man (your local home improvement store often has a list!)

-network with local real estate investors

-see how things are fixed so you can troubleshoot things in the future and save yourself some cash

[43:26] Marketing your properties

[50:20] Formula for how you list, showing properties, etc.

-features, location

-include tenant qualifications

[56:15] David’s tenant screening process

-check for evictions

-landlord reference (2-3 years) …these are valuable! Have some questions ready.

-credit report

-criminal history

-income 3x the rent

Resources you should check out!

Cozy.co

www.buildium.com

www.appfolio.com

Rently

www.avail.co

www.Rentometer.com

Happy.co