As a real estate agent, I believe in helping people by using real estate to attain financial freedom. To me, financial freedom is not worrying about where your next paycheck is coming from, or worry about how on earth you are going to pay all of your bills for this month. Financial freedom is being able to save some of your paycheck in case of an emergency, or a much needed vacation.
Getting closer to financial freedom can come in many forms. You can look to sell your current home with payments that you can no longer keep up with, freeing yourself from that burden and giving yourself a chance to start over fresh. You can look to buying a fixer upper, making the repairs yourself and saving a ton of money with the equity in your home. You can look to use the equity in your current home to buy that home you have always dreamed of.
Here is how I have used Real Estate to push toward my dreams. I was out of college for a little over a year. I was living at my mother’s house while working a full time job (which was very hard to get at that time). I always wanted to get out of my mother’s home and live on my own. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother to death. This was just something I had to do. To me, it symbolized being an adult, having my own place and being able to support myself.
Reality soon stuck me as I begin to look at the apartments that were available. All of the good apartments that were in a nice area were over the price that I wanted to pay for. All of the good apartments that were in a not so nice area also seems overpriced to me. If I moved out and had to pay that amount monthly in rent, I would not be able to save enough money for anything else! What if an emergency came up? I would be screwed, and would have to move out and start again from scratch. This didn’t seem right to me, there had to be a better way.
That’s when I came up with the idea of buying my own home. It couldn’t be just a single family home however, because the mortgage would be just as much as rent, and I would be in the same situation. I wanted to get a 2 unit apartment building. That way, I could live in one and rent out the other. The rent would cover most of the mortgage, so I would be able to live in a nice apartment for half of the cost! So I made a plan to save enough money for a down payment. Once I saved enough, I went searching for the right building, using a realtor who understood what I was looking for (and very patient!). I was able to find a fixer upper 2 unit, repair it using a 203k loan, and move into a freshly updated apartment! I still live there to this day.
Ever since, I use the money I save to dive further and further in to real estate, eventually making it my full time job. I believe now that I can help others get closer to financial freedom by using real estate as a tool to jumpstart them on their way.
Each person has a different motivation behind what they are doing when it comes to buying or selling real estate. I make sure to always do one thing the same with all of my clients: simply focus on helping them in any way I can. I consult with my clients and give them the advice that will cater to their needs the best, even if that means not buying or selling me and staying in their current position. If you have any questions or would like to know how I can help you, feel free to contact me!