BUY RENT BUY Origin Story

I never publicly shared the fact that we bought 5 houses in 8 years without selling our primary residence until I became a real estate agent.

It became a way for me to stand out from the million of other agents in my city and offer a new way to help people build wealth. This experience became BUY RENT BUY.

But that’s not how it started.

Eight years ago, Kelly and I were ready to buy our first home. It was beyond scary, tons of nerves and anxiety, and we had no idea what we were doing.

But one thing we had always heard was that “real estate was one of the best way to build wealth.” 

With that in mind I remember walking the house we ended up buying and saying to our realtor, “Ultimately, we’d like to keep this house as a rental and buy again one day.”

I can imagine our realtor rolled her eyes because that was a pipe dream. That’s not what they teach you. Instead you’re told to buy a small home or condo, build equity, sell it, and use the equity to buy something bigger.

But from the beginning, Kelly and I had the goal to build a financial foundation for our family through real estate.

This is why I always start the conversation around your goals.
Remember this equation and I’ll unpack it at the end.

Finances + Goals = Strategy

For us, we had low salaries so if we were serious about reaching our goals we needed to supplement our income. This helped determine our strategy and it’s why we bought the specific house we did.

It was the only 3 bed | 3 bath we could afford which was important because we knew we were going to rent out our spare rooms. It’s called “house hacking.”

This strategy allowed us to offset our mortgage and in 2 years we had enough saved to buy again.

In fact, that same year we bought two homes.

1. A single family home in Santa Clarita where our renters moved with us and continued renting out the spare rooms.

2. A cabin in Green Valley Lake, CA (near Big Bear) as a “second home” we rented out on Airbnb.

More to come on this and the rest of our story, but this is how we got started.

Here’s the takeaway:

1. If you have goals in real estate, you need a plan. Take a look at your specific situation and use this equation:

   Finances + Goals = Strategy

   Here was the equation for us when we started:

   (Low Income + No Debt) + Own Multiple Homes = House Hacking

   Need help assessing your specific situation? Build your FREE plan here.

2. I’m a real estate agent now, but before I did it “professionally” I did it personally. I offer strategies and advice from my own experience.

   The goal of BUY RENT BUY, this newsletter, my social media, etc. is to help people understand their options and to take their best next step in real estate.

Have questions? How can I help?

As always, thanks for being here. See you next week 👋