These podcasts start blowing my mind. I’m drawn to the real estate podcast. I know NOTHING about real estate, even though I own homes myself. Back when I was young and dumb, I was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC and foolishly believed that I wold become a SOF guy and stay there forever. It wasn’t so far off of a notion, because to this day – I have MANY friends who are still there and have never left after all this time.
I remember having a discussion with my dad way back when and he mentioned that I should start buying some real estate. I was a 1LT at the time and figured that was the next step toward adulting. I grew up in California so the pricing of homes in the Bay Area were what I naively thought was the price everywhere. I believed buying a house was completely out of the realm of possible for me. Obviously that market is not the same as North Carolina though. After talking to other friends who bought homes, I did the math and saw that I could potentially spend less in mortgage versus rent. So I did.
I started off with a condo. I left for a few years and returned to Bragg to go through our Q-Course. I figured I would buy a bigger home cause I would live there forever.
This was 2008. We all know what happened in 2008. The Real Estate market crash from hell. I had used my VA loan twice and bought a decently sized home in the “Exclusive” part of this subdivision. The home was purchased for $245K. As soon as the market crashed, it was soon worth $220K. It didn’t matter, I was still living there and I’d be there forever so who cares right? Wrong.
In typical Army fashion, I was put on orders to move again. Ugh. Now what? I don’t know what to do, so I guess i’ll just keep it like I kept my condo and rent it out.
As I left Fort Bragg, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan raged on and Soldiers were redeploying with money in their pockets. The OPTEMPO was high and so was the demand for homes. So the “Exclusive” part of the subdivision I purchased wasn’t so exclusive anymore.
The builder decided to clear the area that was just woods behind us and build more homes to meet the demand. They were also cheaper. What did that do to the value of my home? Well, it dropped further. My $250K home is now worth $200K. WTF.
Just my luck. I guess I’ll keep them and rent them out. I hire this property manager who is a friend of one of the language instructors I had met at SWC. Bottom Line Up Front – She’s a fucking crook. I know this now. Unfortunately I worked with her for over 10 years and she basically worked for the tenants and NOT the owners.
I was toying with selling my properties because of my shitty experiences with Real Estate. I was so irritated, I never wanted to buy a home again. I chose to rent because I didn’t want to deal with renters and a shitty property manager ever again. But my property was worth less than I bought it so if I ended up selling, I would sell at a loss – so I was just stuck. Stuck with a shitty property manager who in turn attracted shitty tenants. I bled monthly keeping these properties but I didn’t know what else to do.
Fast Forward to 2020 and I’m just dipping my foot into this Real Estate podcast. It can’t be this easy can it? I’m listening and crunching numbers and its starting to make more sense. I’m skeptical like I am about everything, but I keep pressing on. I start looking on Redfin and crunching numbers on my own and its surpisingly easy. The more I learn, the more I research to see if its true. Then I apply it all to my own situation. I’m buying books, I’m reading more. I’m no longer curious – I’m fucking obsessed.
I start looking at how to fix my situation. I start lurking on forums and asking random questions like a true rookie. Everyone is more than happy to help and I’m expanding my network. Maybe I can buy a house after all at the next duty station? This is a big step for us. We never made moves toward this in the past.
But its COVID and the market might crash again. What do I do? I don’t have money saved up and I don’t want to use my VA Loan again. I start studying the market at my next duty station. Its competitive as hell right now and I need to be aggressive. I keep networking through my new found Real Estate Investor friends and start talking to the right people.
We eventually fire that property manager and hire someone new. They suck and I fire them too. I’m not making the same mistakes I made before. I’m reaching out to real estate investors in the area for the best property management teams. I adjust rents and look at ways to refinance, while saving money to buy a home.
It looks like my luck is starting to change…