About to leave my J.O.B. for a career change......give advice please!!! - Posted by Mike Breiner - TX

Posted by SusanL.–FL on June 09, 2000 at 08:16:47:

nt.

About to leave my J.O.B. for a career change…give advice please!!! - Posted by Mike Breiner - TX

Posted by Mike Breiner - TX on June 07, 2000 at 13:45:06:

I am about to leave active duty military service this summer, and am being bombarded with job offers for “corporate” America. While that is a good thing, I am not sure that I wish to work for anyone else again. I have been visiting this site for awhile now, and I have purchased and completed several courses. I have even helped some of my local area investors with ideas, but I have yet to complete my first real deal. I want to have REI as my future, and I think I am ready to jump in, but I am a little worried about losing my “Security” as Kiyosaki puts it.

I will have about 4-5 months living expenses saved up when I leave the military, and my question is, is it realistic for me to jump in feet first and “hit the streets” (as Ed Garcia puts it)? I want to do this, but I want to know that I will not be putting my wife and three children at risk by going at it full time. Can EXPERIENCED investors tell me if a reasonably smart guy, with a good handle on the overall picture, jump in and make a profit within about 3-4 months? Or am I being a foolish newbie that needs to gain some deals before going at it full time? If it helps, I will be moving into the Houston/Katy area in Texas and I have already formed my own Corp and LLC for investing (just did this recently).

Any advice would be appreciated, and I am confident that I will get some good advice based on my observations of this board. Thanks to all who respond.

Take this one step further in your thought process? - Posted by SusanL.–FL

Posted by SusanL.–FL on June 14, 2000 at 09:07:39:

For any and all considering leaving your J.O.B. to go into R.E. full time?

IF you currently depend upon your spouse?s income, then just MAKE SURE you are ?set up? so that you can survive on just YOUR own (r.e.) income BEFORE you ?make the move?.

You NEVER know when your spouse may unexpectedly ?leave the picture? (either death or divorce)?.and there goes your ?back-up? income!

Make sure you can keep a roof over your head and pay your car payment (if you have one)/plus other ?incidentals?: food/insurance/medical, etc.

Just something to seriously take note of?

Dont do it my friend… - Posted by Bob Selby

Posted by Bob Selby on June 10, 2000 at 22:15:19:

I worked for a bank in the Detroit area for several years. Earned 70k per year in salary for a 40 hour suit and tie workweek. I left my position to “jump in with both feet” a year and a half ago and I can honestly tell you every moment has been a struggle. The learning curve in this business is tremendous, and contrary to what some of these “courses” might promise, there is no free lunch.

I am just now in the position that my business is beginning to grow and warrants my full time attention. I would in NO way reccomend that you walk away from a job that puts food on the table to get into this business full time.

Take it slow and try to juggle your interest in this business with taking care of the bills at hand, and try to make the career transition a careful and easy paced one.

Best of luck,

Bob

http://www.metro-homes.net

Re: Let the job finance your REI and feed your children - Posted by Millie I.

Posted by Millie I. on June 08, 2000 at 01:10:54:

Mike,

I am a full time investor who lives off my real estate investment income. I have been in business for over 10 years, and I do very well, but it didn’t happen overnight.

Profit is never guaranteed in any investment, especially when you are just starting out, doing your first deal, learning the business, and often learning from your first painful mistakes.

First of all, if you have 3 children, your first responsibility is to provide for them, give them a secured home, clothes on their back, food on the table, and medical insurance…Your children should not have to be afraid from week to week whether Daddy makes enough money to buy groceries. It is not fair for them, you can’t really have your wife and 3 kids live in a car like Kiyosaki. You just might not have a rich friend to bail you out like he did. Kiyosaki never planned to be poor, it ‘happened’ to him, that part of his life is not something he wants you to copy.

Real Estate Investment is not a 9 to 5 job, you do not get a regular paycheck that you can count on to pay your monthly bills or groceries. Wealth is often accumulated through time (years), often in form of equity on a property. If you realise cash profit on a flip, there are expenses and taxes that quickly depletes a fair percent of your profit before you can bring the money home. Now do you pay bills with the money? or do you use it as capital for the next deal? Either way, this first deal won’t take you too far.

When you look for your first deal, it may take weeks or months before you find a deal that you ‘think’ will make you profit. It is not easy to get a mortgage without a job. Assuming you find an owner financed deal, you will have to pay at least some closing costs and insurance to buy the property, then spend some money to do repairs/upgrades, and then you may rent it or flip it. If you rent it, you may have to use the rent money to pay the mortgage, not groceries. Could be a problem if the tenant fails to pay rent, or if you have a vacancy. The mortgage payment is still due. If you flip, unless you are experienced in selling houses, the house may not sell for months. If you use realtors, you’ll have to pay commission on top of closing costs. Often first time flippers just break even or make a smaller profit than they expect. Most of the time, they are happy to have gained their first experience. From this point, some newbies would quit real estate for good, others find confidence to go for the second deal, this time a little wiser.

HOW CAN YOU GO ABOUT IT?

  1. Get the highest pay job with the best benefits you can find. Take care of your family first. Your wife and children deserves a peace of mind.
  2. Spend your paycheck wisely, put money aside for capital, and clean up your credit. Position yourself to qualify for an owner-occupied property using your 100% financing VA benefit. Consult with your military financial adviser.
  3. Find a 4-unit building (in a middle class area) that needs a little work. Buy it and move into one unit. Fix up the other units on weekends and rent them out to tenants that have a job for at least 12 months. (Buy a Landlording course to help you)
  4. Do not spend rent money on living expenses. Pay the mortgage and repairs with it. Save enough for income taxes and expensive upgrades like roof, furnace, basement seepage, and city required upgrades for rental properties.
  5. Join your local real estate club to keep informed about real estate laws and investment skills and opportunities.
  6. When your units are all rented, and you are mentally ready for more. You can do some Lease Option Flips (see Lease Option courses) or bird-dog for other investors for an extra couple thousand here and there. This is good training ground for a newbie at zero or minimum cost.
  7. After you lived in your 4-unit for 2 years, go find another 4-unit and move into it, and do the same thing all over again. This time you will get things done twice as fast, and most probably make more money.
  8. Multi-task ! You can hold a job, be landlord for the first 4 unit, rehab your second 4 unit, and flip a couple houses in between. If you think that’s working too hard, do yourself a favor, quit now and have a normal quiet life. Successful investors are not normal people, they want to be millionaires.
  9. Get your wife and children involved. They can learn how to contribute to the business, while having very positive quality family time.
  10. When your net income (after expenses and taxes) from your real estate profit is higher than your paycheck, it is time to quit the job and go full time as a veteran investor.

Meanwhile, you children enjoy secure and happy lives, and you build a solid foundation in business and wealth building for the future.

Best of Luck,
Millie I.

Re: About to leave my J.O.B. for a career change…give advice please!!! - Posted by IdahoRob

Posted by IdahoRob on June 07, 2000 at 15:40:49:

Mike Hi

May I suggest you look up the past post of Scott Smith. He is or was also in the military and was making more in real estate than his commanding officers
while serving.
Hope he reads this.
If You get a chance maybe you could e-mail him—

May I put my 2 cents worth in here – why not start right now before you are out, using what you have learned in your courses. Scott did all or most of his deals around his free time.

Hope this helps
Rob Harris

Re: About to leave my J.O.B. for a career change…give advice please!!! - Posted by Matt B

Posted by Matt B on June 07, 2000 at 14:31:54:

It is entirely possible to make a profit within 3-4 months, especially if you have already bought some courses and studied them. However, with having only 4-5 months of living expenses saved, you may be setting yourself up for some major setbacks.

While it is possible to make money quickly with real estate, it also possible that your first deal may be delayed for any number of reasons. Your buyer may pull out, it may take a while to learn how to recognize seller motivation properly, you may miss some step due to your newness and delay a deal, etc.

I think that the best idea for someone in your situation would be to take a part time job for now. If you’re lucky/creative, maybe you can get a job at a title company or something related to real estate to help further your education while you work. Then pour a VAST amount of effort into finding and working deals with every second of your free time. Re-read your course material again and again until it becomes automatic for you.

This is all just my suggestion, and I’m sure that others may have better ones. I, too, was in a situation similar to yours, having saved about 3-4 months of living expenses. Knowing that I HAD to do a deal to live motivated me to get out there and actually start doing deals. However, my lack of education and experience got me involved with a few people who helped me lose a lot of money, so I ended up in a pretty bad situation. I recovered, but I think that to best enter investing full time, you should try to make the transition as easy as possible. Get a few deals and some cashflow and then tackle it full time.

Good luck!

Re: About to leave my J.O.B. for a career change…give advice please!!! - Posted by soapymac

Posted by soapymac on June 07, 2000 at 14:24:02:

Mike,

I would not call myself a newbie, but I’m not inexperienced, either. Nor am I as experienced as others on this board.

I’ll share this with you, though: in Kiyosaki’s third book, “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing,” he addresses your question directly.

Might be worth some more read time.

Cordially,

Roy MacLean
“soapymac”

Re: Let the job finance your REI and feed your children - Posted by Susan in Hawaii

Posted by Susan in Hawaii on June 08, 2000 at 13:49:57:

Thanks Millie - We are in the same boat as Mike. My husband will retire from the AF in about 2 1/2 yrs. We are starting to think about our future plans now and are settling in on REI. We realize that while we will be getting a fairly decent pension from Uncle Sam - it won’t begin to support a family of four. We have discussed our goals - we’re starting to educate ourselves about REI and while we love it here in Hawaii will probably transfer out next summer for the mainland where it will be alot easier to start actively investing in real estate. Getting the family involved is a fantastic idea. We now spend at least 1 day each weekend visiting potential rental income properties with our children and telling them why we’re doing this - their and our future security. It will probably fall to me to be the spearhead of this since we know my husband will have to be in corporate America for a few years until we can get this going.
Thanks again Millie - I’m marking your post and will show it to my husband later!

Excellent post! - Posted by SusanL.–Bradenton, FL

Posted by SusanL.–Bradenton, FL on June 08, 2000 at 13:28:16:

I liked No. 9.

With your spouse and children ‘behind’ you, you are nearly HOME FREE!!

Good luck!

Thanks for a GREAT POST - This is real WISDOM ! - Posted by JohnG

Posted by JohnG on June 08, 2000 at 09:34:30:

What a great post.
You drew the picture extremely well. Walk before you run and make sure you have food on the table before you decide to go on your own.
And always remember - a job is just a front for a credit rating !!!

Re: Let the job finance your REI and feed your children - Posted by R BARDINAL

Posted by R BARDINAL on June 08, 2000 at 07:09:01:

THIS IS A GREAT MESSAGE FOR ANYONE IN THE MILITARY TO READ!! I PERSONALLY AM DOING 90% OF WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT IN THIS MESSAGE. IT IS NICE TO SEE THAT THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO FEEL THE SAME WAY I FEEL ABOUT REAL ESTATE INVESTING, AND TAKING CARE OF FAMIY FIRST.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
R BARDINAL

Great Post Millie nt. - Posted by phil fernandez

Posted by phil fernandez on June 08, 2000 at 05:47:33:

nt.

Minor Correction - Posted by Jim Kennedy - Houston, TX

Posted by Jim Kennedy - Houston, TX on June 12, 2000 at 24:37:53:

Roy,

Minor correction - “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing” is Kiyosaki’s fourth book. His first three are:

  1. If You Want To Be Rich & Happy Don?t Go To School? 1992
  2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad 1997
  3. The Cashflow Quadrant 1998

Best of Success!!

Jim Kennedy,
Houston, TX

Re: About to leave my J.O.B. for a career change…give advice please!!! - Posted by Glen NY

Posted by Glen NY on June 07, 2000 at 21:05:57:

Mike, Roy is right on track, why not do as Kiyosaki says and get a job that will teach you something that you need for your RE investment career. You can still do deals on the side while you gain experience. No worry about how to pay for your next dinner, and you can work hard on the deals too. You should start tracking deals down now, as it may take some time to find the first one. Why wait?

I am most of the way through “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing” and find it to be very informative, not in a get rich quick way, but in how to think and invest like a real investor. Good reading, in my opinion.

Good Luck,
Glen

Re: Let the job finance your REI and feed your children - Posted by chris

Posted by chris on June 10, 2000 at 13:42:34:

Susan-

I remember that the military pension rules have changed for servicemen and women who have put in their 20 or more years. In the good old days you got your monthly payments as soon as you got out. Now if your enlistment dates are after a certain cutoff(which I do not remember) you have to wait until you are something like 60 years old or greater before you receive your payments.

Kind of off the subject but something to look at. I hope your spouse falls within the old rules.

-Chris