B (3:59)

For me, it was the lender first. And again, that that came from the introduction from my mom, because it was a learner that she had used. And the lender then introduced me to my agent. My agent and my lender both recommended me to the same contractor. Um, and then I did a little bit of homework myself to find a property manager in that market. But the first domino to fall for me was the lender. And because they were local, they had a really good finger on the pulse of who else I should be talking to. And, like, guys, like. I think that's also the benefit of working with small, local, regional banks is that if, you know, if I would have walked into, like, the local bank of America branch, maybe, you know, the guy or gal working in that office, you know, knows, like, all the agents and stuff. But it's like the local credit union or, you know, like, small bank, they tend to know because they're, like, truly like, a part of that community. And working with investors, they tend to know maybe a little bit more. So for me, it was lender first and then everyone else. Now, luckily for you guys, Everyone that's listening now, BP has the agent finder and lender finder. So virtually most major markets across the country, you can just plug in your city and BP will connect you with tons of investor friendly agents and lenders to help shortcut this process for you.

A (5:14)

So that's next. Let's kind of move into our buy box. So Tony, you probably had a spreadsheet with the exact type of home you were looking for and the type of siding and everything like that. In me, I had no buy box. I had no idea what I wanted to go after. I just knew like a small property, a small single family or like a duplex or a triplex maybe, but that was really all of my buy boxes. Small, multifamily or single family. And in that area, that market, but.

B (5:48)

Even that, Ashley, I mean that's a bit of a buy box to start with. Like how did you land on that as your first buy box?

A (5:54)

I just didn't think that I could take down anything bigger than that. And I honestly didn't know about any other kind of investment strategy. Like I didn't think of self storage or think of campgrounds or think of short term rentals even. So really it was just that I was clueless and thought this is the only way to invest in real estate.

B (6:17)

Honestly, what's the saying? Ignorance is bliss, right? You know, it's like, hey, you know what, you know, for me, honestly, I mean I, at the end, I definitely did have a pretty tight buy box. But when I first started it was pretty open. But my lender did give me some very clear guidelines on what I needed to do in order to qualify for the loan. And what I needed was a property where the after repair value, or really I should look at the other way where the purchase price and the construction costs were no more than I believe it was like 72.5%. It was like a very specific number, 72.5% of the after repair value. So that was my initial guard where I was like, I don't know if it really matters what I buy. I just got to make sure that my purchase price and my rehab are no more than 72.5% of the ARV. And then in working with my agent, she was the one that started to give me more guidance on like, okay, you know, maybe don't go in this area. Because my plan was to bur this property, turn it into a rental. Talking with my agent, talking with the property manager that I wanted to hire, they kind of guided me toward, hey, here's the type of property that maybe makes the most sense given the strategy that you're trying to execute. And from that I was able to start analyzing different deals and saying, I don't really like this spot or hey, maybe they're a little bit harder pencil out here. And I landed on. I want a three bedroom, 1950ish build in the 71105 or 71104 zip code. Right. So I'd narrowed it down from the whole city down to two zip codes within that city. And I ended up finding a three bedroom. Believe it was built in like maybe 1958 or something like that in the zip code that I was looking for. But it came from getting insights from my lender, from my agent, from my pm and they kind of guided me toward what my buy box should actually look like in that market.

A (8:04)

Yeah, I think a big thing is, is to just show like Tony and I weren't perfect with our buy box. We, you know, just took action. If you're somebody listening, that's an analysis. Paralysis and feel like you don't know everything. Yeah, you probably don't know everything. And neither did we. And we took action and we made it out okay. We survived that first deal. So I think as we go through our first deal stories, like, I may not have a lot of like, great advice or like really cool or unique things I did because I, like Tony said, I just was ignorant and didn't know any better. So I. But I think the real motivation here should be that you can do this and you, you don't need to know everything. So Tony, what's our next thing after building up our team?

B (8:54)

How did we find the deal? So Ash, back to you. How did you find this first deal?

A (8:58)

The good old mls. And I sent it to my mom's friend and I said, I'd like to go see this. And I went and walked to the property. It was a duplex. And after seeing it, I decided, okay, I'm going to put together an offer. I honestly can't remember what it was listed at, if I offered lower or higher right at. But it was like pretty close to what their asking price was. It ended up being like 72,000 or 74,000.

B (9:26)

Same for me right off the MLS. And I was working with an agent and you know, she kind of had me on her drip and I can't remember if I found it, if she found it first. But I do remember, I believe it was listed at like $150,000. And I was like, hey, I Like this one, like, you know, here's my offer. And I remember her saying, hey, we should start lower. I remember that specifically. I remember how off I was. She's like, hey, just come in at 100. And they ended up accepting that offer at the lower number that she, that she suggested to me. So same right off the mls. There wasn't really a whole heck of a lot of negotiation on the deal because, you know, it penciled for me. And yeah, we moved forward from there.

A (10:03)

Tony, what month and year was this?

B (10:07)

This would have been, we went under contract, I believe in September of 2018 because I, I remember closing, it was like right before Halloween of 2018. So it was like mid October of 2018.

A (10:19)

And mine was September 2013, I think 2013 or 2014 maybe. I can't, I can't remember which year, but one of those. Yeah, so definitely very different markets, very different times, but still the same principles apply. We didn't know everything. We stuck to, you know, figured it out along the way as we went. And there was things we researched, things we studied, things we did that made us come out of this alive and successful. We have to take a quick break here, but when we come back, we're going to find out more about our first deals.

C (10:56)

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D (11:42)

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A (13:01)

Okay, welcome back. So Tony and I are going through our first deals and we went and walked the property and made our offers. So now we're going through the due diligence phase. Tony, I did an inspection on my first property. Did you do an inspection?

B (13:17)

Absolutely, 1,000%. And I feel that every rookie should do the same thing. It's like 200, 300 bucks.

A (13:23)

Especially now it stays market. You can, it was really hard to do a couple years ago, but now you can add an inspection. I just put an offer in on a property yesterday and we usually when I doing an offer, I'm taking out the inspection, like especially if it's a big rehab and I already know everything I need to do and it's going to cost a lot. But I also like usually say that I will clean out the house so you can leave whatever you want. And I took that out of the offer. I'm like, you know what, I don't need to add that in anymore. Make them haul all their junk.

B (13:58)

And that's the benefit of the market that we're in right now. But obviously your offer is going to kind of flow with where we are in the market cycle.

D (14:06)

Right.

B (14:06)

And sometimes we're more competitive and other Times are maybe not as I did do a full inspection, and we didn't get to the financing part. We'll touch on the financing in a little bit. But my financing did have this piece where they were funding the rehab as well. And as part of that, they wanted a full scope of work before they would actually fund the loan. So I had to get from a general contractor a full scope of work, you know, the entire bid. And then that was part of my due diligence period as well, was having not only the inspection, but also, I believe I had two general contractors go walk the property, give me their scopes of work along with their bids to give me a full sense of what.

A (14:41)

Needed to be done with my inspection. I got the inspector referred to me by my agent, and I stayed there the whole time to, like, see what he was doing and learn. And then I just remember afterwards giving me this binder with pages, and it was just like, here's the roof. And literally it, like, wrote out, like, here's what we look for on the roof, like, on the sheet template. So he was literally going through and filling out templates and following it list by list. So after that, I actually didn't use inspectors for a while because I literally would take that binder and I would go through the property with my handyman and be like, okay, let's go through. And I, you know, I was such a, you know, savvy investor trying to save so much money that I was like, I'm not paying $400 for an inspection. I'm gonna do this myself. And paid off in the long run. Like, I learned a lot and things like that. Yeah, there's some things that definitely got missed. And I had an inspection on my lake house a couple of years ago, and just seeing the difference of, like, even just, like, technology and, like, different things that they have to do an inspection, I'm like, okay, this is way worth the $500 now, or whatever it costs. But we ended up getting a couple things that needed to be replaced. Like the. The furnace was no longer working in the upstairs unit. So we actually got a quote to do one of the Mitsubishi split units in there so the tenant could have AC also. And there was a couple other, like, little electric things and stuff like that. And I think it ended up being around, like, $5,000 of repairs that needed to be made on the property.

B (16:22)

So on that note, Ash, let's talk about financing. So what funds did you use to take this deal down?

A (16:29)

I got a partner, so I had no money I had the $5,000 in savings that I used towards the updates to rehab that need to be done after we close. But I found a partner. So I had planted the seed with him several times just talking about real estate investing. His father was a real estate investor. And I would just say, like, look at what your dad is doing. We should do this. And so when the time came and I found this property, he came and looked at it also and he said, yeah, okay, let's do it. And we set up an LLC and he deposited the funds to purchase the property and we became partners on the deal. So I used about 5,000 of my own cash, which was literally my life savings, to do the repairs and maintenance and he covered the purchase of the property.

B (17:15)

My story was a little bit different because I didn't use a partner, but again, it goes back to this local bank that I was using, but they funded 100% of the deal. So I think I paid for maybe like my inspection and my appraisal closing costs, but I had no down payment. They funded everything. And that was part of that whole 72 and a half percent that has make sure that all those boxes checked out. But once they did that, they, they saw the property in its current condition. They looked at the scope of work that I provided to them. They said, hey, we think that your property is going to be worth X once it's done. Because of that, we'll fund everything. So they funded the purchase price, they funded all of the construction costs. And the added benefit of having the bank fund the construction was that before the contractor got paid, the bank would send out someone from their office or maybe they hired someone, I don't know. But they would send out their own inspector to go inspect the work that was being done on the property to make sure that it was actually being done correctly to protect their own investment. So me being thousands of miles away, had this bank, you know, who does this for a living. All they do is lend on real estate, you know, who was validating the work that was being done. And it gave me a lot of confidence to say, hey, you know, I can do this remotely because I got multiple sets of eyes checking this work. So it was incredibly helpful for me as a new investor. So we chose our market, found a team, found the deal, we had the financing in place, deal finally like closes. So let's get into what happens after that, Ash. We get our keys in our hands. You know, for me, I actually never saw the keys. We, you know, we get the keys. What happens from there so you mentioned a little bit of rehab. How did you find your contractor? How did you vet them?

A (18:57)

First of all, that used to be so exciting, getting the keys at closing. And now, like, I never see the keys either. It's like, oh, they're in the lockbox or something. You go get over. Like, if the door's unlocked, you're going to change the locks anyways. It's like closing used to. You know, you see people posting on social media, they got the soul time they got their bottle of champagne.

B (19:19)

It's like, you know, I actually, actually did get the keys to that deal because I was so excited that I flew out to Louisiana for the closing. Like, I had, you know, there was no value me being there, but I was like, I just want to go there in person. So I remember actually have a video. I. I was at the closing table, I got the keys and I just drove to the property and I recorded myself unlocking the door for the first time and walking around. I remember that feeling. So I think that was one of the only times I got the keys at closing. Um, but anyway, back to you. How'd you find your contractor? How'd you vet them for the rehab portion?

A (19:50)

So I, as a property manager, I had a handyman that was working at the apartment complex. So my original plan was to use him to do a bunch of the work. And it was really just we wanted to put in. It was the upstairs unit only there was someone living in the downstairs. And it was in fine condition. So the upstairs unit needed vinyl plank flooring. We're going to replace the cabinets with, which is a really small job, super small kitchen, new countertops, and then paint throughout. And so my partner on this deal actually said, like, my roommate can do a lot of this stuff. I'm going to tell him he gets free rent living in my house and have him go and do the rehab. And I'm like, okay, this partnership is getting better and better. So we didn't have to pay for labor at all. My partner, I guess, lost out on that rental income coming in. I don't know how long or I honestly, I don't know. Maybe they worked out another deal. I'm not even sure. But that was the original deal that they had come out with. Then he went and he did it. But, like, the actual cost of everything was like five to six thousand to do that. And then we ended up finding out when we put the split unit in that we needed to update our electrical panel. So we. I didn't realize that until they were there to install the split unit. Like they never told us that when they came and gave us an estimate. So we ended up spending even more than that I think was like another thousand dollars. All said and done with the split unit being hooked up in the new electrical panel to, I mean you guys.

B (21:22)

Got a pretty good deal that's not, you know, that's pretty solid, right? You know, free labor. So guys, there's a lesson, right? Just offer free housing in exchange for free labor. And that's how, that's how you get the good deals I mentioned for us. We found our, our GC through recommendation. So both our, our lender gave us a list, our contract or our agent gave us a list. And there was one guy that was on both of those lists. So he was like the guy that I chose to actually do the work. And we funded our, our rehab again with the debt from the, the bank. And it was a super easy process for us. And what I would do because I was remote, we would FaceTime. It was like every Friday we would get on FaceTime. Either him or someone from his crew would just like walk me around the property, obviously called me during the week, asked me any questions on things, they popped up. But like that visual walkthrough allowed me to again have some more confidence. So I was seeing it on FaceTime. The bank was sending an inspector. And then as we got closer to the rehab being done, I'd already selected my property management company and actually had them go out to do like the final walkthrough to say like hey guys, you're going to be managing this. Is there anything you're seeing that we still need them to, you know, blue tape here, blue tape there to make sure they get dialed in. So for me the, it was honestly the easiest rehab I'd ever done because I did nothing, you know, other than a few FaceTime calls. So we're much more hands on now. But that was probably the easiest.

C (22:37)

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D (25:09)

So you're about to make a trade.

A (25:10)

Based on a friend's text, but which you do you listen to? Is it we could buy a house in Tulum, get optioning those options.

D (25:24)

We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research. Get your head in the trade and.

A (25:31)

Make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more@finra.org TradeSmart so that's the rehab phase.

B (25:39)

Ashley, let's talk a little bit about the management side. Once the rehab's done. Property's not producing income until we get someone in it. So what did lease up and management look like for you on that first deal?

A (25:49)

Yeah, so that was part of my value. I was going to be the property manager on the property and there was already a tenant downstairs. I think maybe they were paying like $600 a month or maybe like 550, something like that. So once the renovation was done, I'd have to lease the other unit. So I used what I was doing at that time for the apartment complex and that was posting on Craigslist. I don't think there really was a Facebook marketplace then at all, but I think it mostly was like, maybe I don't even think I was posting on Zillow then. But yeah, that's interesting. I have to go back and look. But I think it was like literally putting sign out front. Like even at the apartments, we would put a sign out that there's a unit available, call this number. But like, yeah, we were posting apartments on Craigslist for a while and that's how we did that first unit. And then I would do the showings and then I did a lease agreement and then tenant screening. And then we definitely didn't do a thorough job of tenant screening. And that was like, big lesson learned as to like now there's so many tools and resources of things that you can actually find out about a person. But I hadn't implemented any of that besides just running a credit check on somebody.

B (27:07)

But it worked out, you know, I mean, you guys found. You guys got someone placed and the deal, deal worked out for you guys. And again for me, super hands off, had a property manager. So as soon as the rehab was done, keys went from the GC to the pm. PM did all the work to find someone. And we actually found some relatively quickly. I, I don't remember if we had to do a price drop or not. I think like, whatever price we listed, I think we got it rented pretty soon there afterwards. And I never met the tenants. Couldn't tell you what they look like or if I bumped into them in the street, they wouldn't know me either. But they were, they were a family that was military. There's a military base in Shreveport or in the city right next door. They're military. And I was making a whopping, I think after everything, like, 150 bucks a month in cash flow. But for me, it was the best $150 I had ever made because it was proof of concept that this whole real estate investing thing could actually work. And that one deal is what gave me the confidence to continue doing real estate and obviously led me to completely change my life in the last, you know, whatever, eight years or so that it's been that we've been. Been investing. So, guys, one deal. It's all it takes to change everything.

A (28:17)

We actually bought our property in six months because of that proof of concept. Like, wow, we did this. It's rented. It's, you know, same. A little bit of cash flow. But it was like, okay, the mortgage payment is covered. Like, my partner was like, wow. He was the one that put in the money. So we paid the mortgage payment to him to pay him back. It's like, this is great. I'm getting this check every single month, and I'm earning interest on my money that I invested. Like, this is passive for me. Let's do it again. And we did. Six months later, a house right down the street went up for sale, and we ended up buying that one, too. But I. I really think, like, from this episode, the lessons learned are get out of analysis, paralysis, take action. You're not going to know everything, and that is okay. And third, if you're listening to this episode and you're, like, annoyed that I kept saying or Tony kept saying, like, well, we don't really remember. It could have been this, could have been that. Then you are a rookie investor that needs to come on right now because it is fresh in your mind exactly what you are going through to get that first deal. Or you just got that first deal, and we want to hear all about it. So go to biggerpockets.com guest and fill out an application so you don't get old like me and Tony and not remember every detail.

B (29:36)

By the way, if you guys. Actually, I think it was episode 10 of the Ricky podcast, where I was on as a guest, actually, before I became a host. So if you guys want, like, the fresh story, I believe it's episode 10. You guys can go back and listen to.

A (29:47)

Yeah. You know what's gonna be funny is, like, people are gonna go listen, and there's gonna be, like, things that don't match up.

B (29:55)

Straight up lying on this, you know, last episode. He has, like, I've lost all faith in what he said. Directionally correct is, you know, I believe everything I said on today's episode was directionally correct. But yeah, episode 10 if you want the full details.

A (30:06)

Well, thank you guys so much for listening. I'm Ashley, he's Tony, and if you're watching this on YouTube, leave a comment and let us know if you did your first deal, what market it was in, and how you made on it. Thank you guys so much for listening or watching. We'll see you next time.

B (30:29)

Hey, rookies, if you're watching this, we want you to apply to be a guest on the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. That's right. Ashley and I are looking for amazing stories just like yours to be a part of our Real estate Rookie podcast. Now, look, you don't need to be an expert. You don't need to have done thousands of deals. Even if you've done one deal, your story could help inspire the next listener.

A (30:47)

As a rookie investor, especially if you just got your first deal. It is all fresh in your minds and you are the best person to tell your story, give your experience on how you got it done to help someone else get their first deal.

B (31:00)

So head over to biggerpockets.com guest if you want to be a part of our show again, that's biggerpockets.com guest and we'd love to have you on.