This pandemic has slowed everything down.
You can't do showings like you used to.
The time is really interesting to purchase real estate right now.
I knew that once one of these situations was going to hit, I would be
able to invest.
If you look back to 2008, there were people who lost everything and
there were people who made millions.
So I have a total of six properties.
They're all leased out by the bedroom.
So in total, we have 34 tenants.
There's not been any indication from any one of my tenants that they
won't be able to pay for April, May or June.
I have had a few tenants that have been laid off, but they're
actually going to make more money in unemployment than they were
making at their job.
Before anyone freaks out that I'm encouraging my tenants to take on
debt, that's not what I'm doing.
I showed first new credit card bonuses that have like 15 months
interest free. And basically, with all these, if you spend, let's
say, a grand or whatever, you get like, you know, $200.
I'm not shy in a market like this.
I mean, this is how people get insanely wealthy.
Most places do have good virtual tours.
The buildings that I look at, for the most part, are new
construction. So you can get most of what you need by photos, because
I'm not too concerned about damage to the property because it's brand
new, like nobody's lived in it yet.
I was able to buy I think the exact amount was $36,000 worth of stocks
when it bottomed out. We will come out the other side, and the folks
that were able to buy stocks or real estate or companies for pennies
on the dollar, they're going to come out really, really good.
The right answer might depend on where you are in life.
So for me, I mean, I'm 27 and my wife just turned 28 a couple days
ago. If we were to pull out when the market dipped, that would mean
that we're selling for a loss.
And really, that's how you lose money is you sell for a loss.
I wouldn't be giving the same advice to somebody who's 70
and that's their retirement. You know, that might be a very different
conversation. But for us, we have plenty of time for it to bounce
back.
Currently, I assist government, military and police making sure that
their infrastructure is protected through
cybersecurity. As a
cybersecurity specialist and as a tech person, it's always expected
that, "Oh, yeah. We really enjoy working from home and it's so much
fun." But that's not the case for me.
A lot of my work is dependent on going to other cities and other
states.
Before, I used to have two tenants, but now I have one.
I was able to go from a rental of about
$800 to $1,400 a month.
My current tenant, she works from home normally, so this is something
that she's been doing.
I wanted to invest in other places just to have my eggs in multiple
baskets, and the other thing that I decided to do was invest in the
stock market. Now that stocks are really low, and I was getting a
bonus during this time,
I decided to take the bonus and put it into the stock market.
I'm actually trying to start a non-profit tech center because I wanted
to give back from just how fortunate I have been, especially in a
financial position, and I feel like tech is such a great career.
So I kind of wanted to teach others tech.
Our overtime hours have been reduced.
We still work full-time.
The overtime is still gonna come in because with our job we're
required to work overtime when storms hit.
I have five rental properties and I have
five total families as tenants.
I was very lucky that I received my rents, so the month of April was
good. Now we're taking it month by month.
We'll see how May looks, but so far May looks promising as well.
I always talk about "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" because this is pretty much
the book that changed my life around.
I will be getting a copy of this book to my tenants as well.
Again, to kind of like get them in the right mindset, especially
during times like these.
Luckily, people still don't want to go outside and cut their own
grass and things are looking good for the business.
I still think that the real estate market is going to see a downturn.
It just, it takes longer to see it in real estate, I think.
So I'm holding off a little bit on real estate.
I'm still looking, and I'm still putting in offers on deals, but I'm
being very, very meticulous on what I want to jump in on.
Right now, I'm kind of — I'm turned on more with the stock market
because it's very volatile right now.
I'm a long-term investor, so when something drops, I just buy more
and then I hold onto it.
When the economy downturns, when we have a recession, the people with
cash end up picking up some good deals, whether it's in the stock
market or in real estate.
So I honestly think this is actually helpful for me.
I work as an information systems and financial consultant.
I'm a defense contractor for a company called Titan One Zero, so
I am still working my normal job right now.
Everything's remote, though.
It hasn't been too much of an impact on our daily lives.
I have the same number of properties since our last meeting: one in
Pittsburgh, one in Alexandria, Virginia, and then where I live
currently in the National Harbor.
That question is always continually is in my mind like, "Hey, what
happens if a tenant stops paying?"
So about two weeks into the Covid crisis, you know, I actually went
up to Pennsylvania to look at the property and put eyes on it to see
if it would be a worthwhile investment.
The title agent sent me an email yesterday saying that they can't
even close on any properties until the stay-at-home order is lifted
so we'll probably be in a holding pattern.
Folks who do have mortgages that have, I mean, obviously higher
interest rates, and they're able to refinance, I mean, I would
encourage them to refinance.
If your mortgage is anything over five years, I would highly
recommend to look for refinance.
Everything is online. It's called Common Sense Coffee.
There's like 10 of us involved in the company and we created a
minimally viable like roasting operation and we have a website and a
lot of our wholesale discussions kind of came to a halt with some of
the businesses. But for the most part, I mean, the direct-to-consumer
sales have been steady.
You know, I've been reading a lot and it seems like now a lot of the
companies that start now will be well-positioned after the pandemic.