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Upstate Real Estate with The FI Couple - E35

January 29, 2024 / 52:58

This episode features Jesse Kramer interviewing Ally and Josh, known as the FI Couple, discussing personal finance, real estate investing, and their journey to financial independence.

Ally and Josh share their story of meeting in New York and starting their marriage with over $100,000 in student loans. They describe how a layoff led them to focus on financial literacy and explore real estate investing.

The couple explains house hacking, where they bought a duplex, lived in one unit, and rented out the other to significantly reduce their living expenses. They detail their experiences with managing properties and the financial implications of real estate investments.

They also discuss their investment strategies, including the importance of understanding market rates for rentals and the benefits of leveraging 30-year fixed mortgages. The episode concludes with their aspirations for future investments and their approach to building a diverse financial portfolio.

Listeners can connect with Ally and Josh on social media and learn more about their journey through their ebook on house hacking.

TL;DR

Ally and Josh discuss their journey to financial independence through real estate investing and house hacking strategies.

Video

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[Music]
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tool welcome to the best interest
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podcast hosted by Jesse Kramer where we
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discuss today's best ideas in personal
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finance and investing the best interest
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is a personal podcast meant for
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entertainment purposes only it should
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not be Tak as Financial advice and is
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not prescriptive of your financial
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situation here's your host Jesse
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Kramer hey guys welcome to episode 35 of
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the best interest podcast my name is
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Jesse Kramer and my guests today are
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Ally and Josh better known as the FI
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couple now if you are interested in real
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estate investing in retiring early or
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maybe even in incorporating investing
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into your long-term relationships then
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this is a great episode for you but real
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quick before I introduce Our Guest could
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you please pause the show and then in
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your podcast app give a rating and
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because the best interest it's a growing
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small business and I want to keep making
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this content for people just like you a
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rating and a review it lets all those
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you who decide to sacrifice that time
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and effort to leave that rating and
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review thank you guys so with that let's
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go meet our
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[Music]
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guest my guests today they are a young
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couple who are documenting their Journey
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journey to financial independence with a
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particular focus on real estate
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investing and Index Fund investing and
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you can find them sharing their message
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with tens of thousands of followers on
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Instagram and Twitter and today they
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came to share with us so I am honored to
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welcome Ally and Josh better known as
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the FI couple onto the best interest
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podcast hey guys how you doing doing so
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good we're so excited to be here with
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you tonight and to finally connect um
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face to face yeah thank you so much
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absolutely absolutely thank you guys for
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coming here well real quick for the
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listeners who aren't familiar with your
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story I figure a great place to start is
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with just a little intro about who you
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are it can be even as fun as you know
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how you guys met uh how you guys became
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a couple of the FI couple and then
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especially kind of what your money
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Journey has been like and and how it got
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you to where you are today yeah
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absolutely um so Josh and I met at State
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School in New York um he was the cute
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guy from class that walked to me home
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one day after class and um we have been
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pretty Inseparable ever since um we
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started our marriage in 2018 with over
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$100,000 in student loans um we really
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didn't talk about money a lot we weren't
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super financially literate in terms of
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like Savvy with personal finance um but
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a lot happened in 2018 that kind of
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catapulted that self-education yes so I
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mean I was unexpectedly laid off from a
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long-term job and that was also the year
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of our wedding um and kind of leading up
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to that we had both been working really
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really hard in our jobs and kind of the
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year before our wedding we weren't
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really seeing each other as much as we
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would really have liked and so we were
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kind of like reflecting one day of like
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well you know if we're getting ready to
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get married but we're not really
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spending a whole lot of time together
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like what can we do differently so that
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we have more time to spend together and
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I think having Josh getting laid off it
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was one of those fork in the road
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moments where it's like what can we do
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differently and what are we not liking
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in our life and for us it was we are
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stra with debt and the modest salaries
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that we're making are not going to cut
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it to pay it off on the timeline we want
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so first it was discovering Dave Ramsey
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then it was you know Bigger Pockets real
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estate investing and it kind of
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catapulted snowballed from there um and
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we became totally obsessed so long story
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short that's kind of the gist of
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it so you mentioned Bigger Pockets right
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there now Dave Ramsey is is probably
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fairly well known we've actually talked
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about him before recently here on the
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podcast for those who don't know what is
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Bigger Pockets yeah so I always joke
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that Bigger Pockets is like the Google
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for Real Estate so it's the largest real
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estate educational platform I think in
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the world um at at the very least in the
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United States so um but it's an online
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educational resource for anyone who's
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looking to start you know what is real
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estate investing you know kind of
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beginners all the way to like how can I
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buy a hundred millionar worth of real
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estate and everything in between and so
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along with having online resources
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they've also have probably about a dozen
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or so books that were published um and
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the more that we started talking about
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kind of like real estate and financial
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Independence the more it seemed like
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real estate was have to be the way that
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we went because neither one of us are
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necessarily you know lucrative careers
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um and we we still had a $100,000 in
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student loans so um we had to figure out
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a way to make more money while also
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spending less money um and real estate
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was that solution for us let's get into
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the real estate because I do have a few
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questions about your guys your your real
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estate Ventures um and one of the first
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ones only because I've seen you talking
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about it before and I think it's a
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really cool idea is so-called house
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hacking right so so correct me if I'm
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wrong but my understanding is that you
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guys either were or still are house
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hacking and that was one of the first
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real estate moves you made so explain to
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us what exactly is house hacking and how
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did it help you out house hacking is
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amazing and in our opinion it is one of
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the best ways that you can can kind of
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dip your toe into the real estate
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investing Waters um so with house
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hacking you're either going to buy a
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single family home or a multif family
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home home but it is going to be your
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primary residence for at least a year
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and because you move into the home you
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qualify for a low down payment owner
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occupant loan you can get 0% if you're a
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VA three and a half% for an FHA or 5%
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for a conventional so you're putting
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very little money down and you're moving
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into a house now if you buy a single
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family home you would rent out the
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bedrooms and that rent would cover most
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of or all of the mortgage so you're
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essentially living for cheap or free now
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if you buy a multif family home like we
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did we bought a duplex we moved into one
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of the apartments and then we had a
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tenant in the other apartment and his
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rent covered half of the mortgage in the
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beginning this made us go from paying 13
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$1400 a month in rent to about
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$600 in new rent which was just our
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mortgage um but we've actually house
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hacked twice so now we live completely
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for free we don't pay anything um so
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it's really
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cool so let me see if I can get this
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straight so you're you you were living
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in an apartment where your rent was
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around 13 or 1400 and that rent kind of
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disappears right that that is money that
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you're spending that you never see
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anything back from in your first house
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hack there's someone living on the other
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side of the wall from you which let's be
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honest it does have some downsides oh
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yeah but the upside is that your new
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rent is only 600 and of that 600 some of
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that I assume is is actually Equity that
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you would eventually see back correct
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yeah got it okay of your mortgage term
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it's mostly paying off interest but
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eventually it gets to this interesting
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point where it's mostly principal pay
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down and you are paying down the
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mortgage yeah and so what was cool too
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again like so I mean Ally was working
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full-time in her career I got laid off
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so I was kind of in between jobs I took
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a job I was driving for Uber
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um I was doing all types of things and
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all the while I was also learning about
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real estate and so you know we at the
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moment we weren't sure like how can we
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really grow our income but once we
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discovered the power of house hacking we
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knew that if we could take our even if
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we just cut our rent in half from say
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1300 down to like 600 or 650 you know if
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you took that $600 over the course of a
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year that's over
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$7,000 after tax that was now going back
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into our pocket because housing is
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pretty much usually the most expensive
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line item in someone's budget so we were
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pretty much able to completely eliminate
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that through house tacking wow okay so
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so just for my own education and maybe
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some people out there are curious so how
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long did you live in that first house
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and then when you transitioned into a a
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second house where you're doing
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something similar I guess what was the
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living situation in that second house
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and my final question is does that mean
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that you retained ownership of the first
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house after moving to the second one
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yeah so we moved into the first house
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hack um actually it was like the week of
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Christmas
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2018 uh moved in um and then really the
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whole purpose of that was we just wanted
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to pay off student loans as fast as
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possible so we closed on the property
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moved in and then most of 2019 we
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honestly just focused on paying off
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student loans and really learning real
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estate and kind of Building Systems and
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so we continued to live in the property
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all of 2019 um and then actually last
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year um in September of 2020 uh we
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closed on our second house hack um which
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is where we are right now it's also a
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duplex so when we moved out of the first
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house we rented our our old apartment um
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and so now both of those units are
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rented so they completely cover the
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mortgage taxes insurance we put money
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aside for maintenance and then the cash
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flow from that property covers our
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portion of the mortgage down here at our
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second house act so we lived in the
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first property for a year and a half and
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the second property um were coming up on
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a year of living here so pretty crazy
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yeah are there any are there any sort of
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tax implications that people should know
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about I mean so it sounds like with your
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first house because you were there as
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primary residents it it it was just like
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my primary residence even though I don't
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have any tenants but now that you're not
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living there anymore does it get treated
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more along the lines of a business sort
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of tax scheme or or how does that work
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it's pretty cool because once you don't
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live there and it's not your primary
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residence you're able to write off any
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Capital expenditures or improvements
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that you're making on the property so
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when we hire different companies to do
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improvements or we have expenses um we
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are able to write that off with our
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accountant yep and then just anything
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that goes into the operation of the
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property so taxes insurance we do have
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PMI because we use less than 20% down
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that's uh private mortgage insurance any
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maintenance costs uh we had a leaky
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ceiling we had to repair at one point um
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and then what's really cool is and this
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is kind of like a unique to real estate
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thing there's what's called depreciation
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now normally depreciation kind of has
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like a negative connotation it's like oh
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like something you own something and
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it's going down in value in the in the
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realm of real estate depreciation is
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really just for tax purposes it's almost
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kind of like a gift the IRS gives to a
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real estate investor and they take your
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property in over the span of a certain
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number of years they say this is what we
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think your property would depreciate by
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every single year it's what's called a
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paper loss right and so it's so often
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several thousands of dollars that is
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also now a tax deduction our property is
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not going down in value it's just the
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way the IRS kind of reconciles with
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something that's you're owning longer
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and so naturally there has to be some
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breakdown that goes into it right that
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that does make sense so the the overall
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value of the property isn't going down
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but if you were to take a picture of the
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house year-over-year and you guys didn't
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do any maintenance on it you would see
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it slowly decaying right and and the
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government recognizes that there's some
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loss of value there and that's the
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that's the depreciation is that oh sorry
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no no go ahead Alie go ahead I was gonna
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say and here in New York we are living
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in 120 plus year old homes so um you
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know I think we were a little scared of
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living in old Homes at first all the
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things that could go wrong but uh we
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joke now like if it's still standing
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after 120 years you know it's it's not
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too bad yeah I can totally relate I'm
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also uh I'm in Western New York I'm in
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Rochester and uh my house was built in
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the 30s I think 1930s so it's coming up
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on 90 90 or so years and there's some
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parts that are definitely showing it but
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on the whole it's it's a good house yeah
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yeah they built them different back then
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yeah yeah that's for sure I wanted to go
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back guys and talk a little bit more
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about the specific finances now you
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mentioned your accountant you've
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mentioned I think you mentioned an
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accountant or you at the very least you
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mentioned kind of different things you
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can deduct tax-wise and one thing that
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I've always felt a little unsure about
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when it came to uh being a real estate
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investor is you know am I getting in
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over my head when it comes to the
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finances am I going to miss out on some
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obvious tax loophole and shoot myself in
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the foot so what's been your experience
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with that have you hired a professional
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do you handle most of it yourself is is
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this a lot of the stuff that you guys
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learned you know back in 2018 from
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Bigger Pockets that now you feel like
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seasoned Pros when Josh and I first
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started investing in real estate I think
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we both had the misconception that we
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had to be experts in every single area
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and I think that that misconception
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prevents a lot of people from getting in
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the game because they think they're not
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prepared they need to know everything
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it's very overwhelming Josh and I are
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really big on focusing on our strengths
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and leaning into those and any areas
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where we feel like we're not really
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expert we hire out competent
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professionals that can do the job well
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so in terms of taxes we know what we
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need to know but we leave the rest to
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our CPA I'm going to do some nice
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cosmetic Renovations in my home but if I
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have electrical work that needs to be
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done I'm hiring my electrician I don't
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want to get electrocuted today you you
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know um so I think uh there hasn't been
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any issues for us because we we treat
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our rental properties like a business
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that they are and we delegate
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responsibilities to members of our team
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I would say the one thing that was kind
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of a blind spot a little bit for us in
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the beginning was was bookkeeping you
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know prior to investing in real estate I
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mean we just did like Turbo Tax our tax
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situation was actually pretty simple um
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so there wasn't a whole lot of
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recordkeeping so luckily we have been
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fortunate to have a great CPA who kind
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of walked us through everything that we
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would need to do um and he kind of
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taught us these are the forms I all need
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to see to make my life easier which
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makes your life easier tracking all your
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expenses different things like that so
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and and now there's a lot of systems
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online that make it that much easier and
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so we just keep all of our receipts we
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scan them we upload them and then come
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taxes and he does his magic excellent
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and and out of curiosity is that CPA
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does he have a like a real estate
00:16:59
specialty or is he just a generic CPA
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and all generic CPAs know enough to
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handle a real estate Investor's taxes I
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want to say yes you know I feel like
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competent CPA should be able to but I
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will say that Josh and I are a bit
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biased with all of the professionals
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that we use whether it's a real estate
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agent a CPA an attorney we really like
00:17:21
investor friendly fill in the blank so
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rcpa is an investor himself um he he
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flips homes like he he kind of really
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gets it our attorney actually is an
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investor so we use our Network to find
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people that really understand what we
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are doing in real estate because we want
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to be able to take advantage of any tax
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incentive that we can you know all right
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guys well one more money question if I
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may ask I'm really curious what kind of
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what kind of time commitment and what
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kind of financial commitment has been
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involved over the lifespan of your
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properties and maybe you know we can
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talk about what you're putting in but
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then also what you're getting out when
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it comes to cash flow so I'll start here
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in saying that when Josh and I first
00:18:06
started investing in real estate we had
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very little Capital to invest I mean we
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had a couple thousand bucks in our
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savings we scraped together every dollar
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that we got from our wedding we didn't
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go on a honeymoon and we bought a duplex
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instead so for our first duplex we put
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5% down um the property was 155 $5,000
00:18:29
were in the capital region of New York I
00:18:31
know that number is going to sound funny
00:18:33
depending on what state you're coming
00:18:34
from um which all in all what was our
00:18:37
total out of pocket for your down
00:18:39
payment and closing costs uh
00:18:41
14,200 bucks Josh is good with numbers
00:18:44
so that was our outof pocket with the
00:18:47
property um beyond that uh we did have
00:18:51
to invest some money into that property
00:18:54
but it's it's kind of not a whole lot I
00:18:57
think so because when we bought the
00:18:58
property there was a tenant already
00:19:00
there um and he was he was paying below
00:19:02
Market rent which was fine because we
00:19:04
were just excited to have a property and
00:19:05
have a tenant I remember January 1 he
00:19:08
gave us a check for like 750 bucks I was
00:19:11
like this is
00:19:13
crazy um and so he about a year later or
00:19:16
so he moved out so we put about $3,000
00:19:19
into his well into that apartment I
00:19:21
should say make it nicer we did some
00:19:23
improvements and so um so yeah and then
00:19:26
we got a new tenant in there we got
00:19:27
about $75 a month more in rent um which
00:19:31
then further lowered our monthly payment
00:19:33
but with that property it was pretty
00:19:35
TurnKey and that's a phrase you here a
00:19:36
lot in real estate investing turn key
00:19:38
means you can move in you don't really
00:19:40
have to do anything it's in great
00:19:41
condition so I would say that first year
00:19:44
real estate investing and with that
00:19:45
first property in general our time
00:19:48
output was a couple hours a week like I
00:19:51
really felt like our time output was
00:19:53
when our tenant would knock on our door
00:19:55
to hand us a rent check because he
00:19:57
didn't understand electonic rent systems
00:19:59
and like I talked to him for like 15
00:20:01
minutes so I really feel like that was
00:20:04
our biggest time output now with our
00:20:06
second property it was very different um
00:20:10
we used a three and a half% FHA loan our
00:20:13
total out of pocket for this property at
00:20:15
150 was
00:20:17
13,200 to close to close so that's your
00:20:21
three and a half% down plus your closing
00:20:23
costs in New York state you're paying
00:20:24
taxes so the closing costs are like
00:20:26
double your down payment um so with this
00:20:30
property it was in rougher shape we got
00:20:32
it at a great deal but we had um you
00:20:37
know probably about close to 15 to
00:20:41
$20,000 in improvements that we needed
00:20:44
to make so this property was not TurnKey
00:20:47
um so because of that I would say our
00:20:50
time output for this one and our money
00:20:52
output has been a bit more because
00:20:56
typically when you buy a property you're
00:20:57
in like that stabilization phase where
00:20:59
you want to get the property running
00:21:01
smoothly everything's good and working
00:21:03
good we are after a year at the the tail
00:21:07
end of that um so I'm noticing our time
00:21:10
output it comes in waves but it's kind
00:21:12
of decreasing yeah I mean in the
00:21:14
beginning it was I mean every single day
00:21:17
you know we were working on something
00:21:19
both expected and unexpectedly um while
00:21:22
also now kind of getting accustomed to
00:21:24
managing a property that we didn't live
00:21:26
in because we you know we rented out of
00:21:27
our other one um and so uh yeah I mean a
00:21:31
year later now relatively speaking knock
00:21:33
on wood it's it's going pretty smoothly
00:21:35
and it's back to that like one to two
00:21:37
hour a week thing but in the beginning
00:21:39
it was it was a lot of work so you often
00:21:41
hear the phrase like real estate
00:21:43
investing is passive you should do it um
00:21:46
it's not passive some months it's more
00:21:50
passive um but isn't it is an active
00:21:53
investment it has great returns um but
00:21:56
it is it is not passive some month are
00:21:58
you know more active than others it
00:22:00
really varies so you're in for an
00:22:02
adventure if you invest in real estate
00:22:05
yeah speaking of Adventures so it sounds
00:22:07
like the second property was more of an
00:22:11
adventure and and potentially more of a
00:22:13
risk right if I'm talking brass tax risk
00:22:16
reward the fact that you guys were going
00:22:17
into a property that you knew you would
00:22:19
have to put money into is definitely
00:22:22
sounds more risky than your first
00:22:23
TurnKey property so maybe you know what
00:22:26
kind of mindset did you have going into
00:22:27
the second property that maybe wasn't
00:22:29
there for the first one or did you feel
00:22:31
like your first property gave you the
00:22:32
experience needed to tackle this second
00:22:34
one yeah I would say our first property
00:22:37
like spoiled us um you know we we didn't
00:22:41
think like well you could live for a lot
00:22:44
cheaper and still really love the space
00:22:46
that you were in and we found that that
00:22:48
was our first property it was beautiful
00:22:50
it was yeah it was it was it was
00:22:52
basically a house and it just so
00:22:53
happened to have an apartment it was it
00:22:55
was magical so um uh our second property
00:22:58
though yes so I mean we had about a year
00:23:00
and a half of experience in our you know
00:23:02
under our belts if you will um our goal
00:23:05
going in all the time like I said before
00:23:07
was we had 102,000 and we no longer
00:23:10
wanted to have student loans so we were
00:23:13
excited to be paying down I think we got
00:23:15
down to like $400 a month at the first
00:23:17
property but our goal was always zero we
00:23:20
don't live free live for free um and so
00:23:23
this property it was an off-market deal
00:23:25
we made through a relationship in the
00:23:27
community
00:23:29
um I think we admittedly I think we
00:23:32
underestimated the amount of work that
00:23:35
was going to be needed we had a baseline
00:23:38
idea but then kind of once we got in and
00:23:40
really started opening things up uh I
00:23:43
think it ended up kind of ballooning on
00:23:44
us a little bit I think we felt
00:23:46
experienced and I think we were a little
00:23:48
naive because our first house hack was
00:23:50
so easy we were like let's do it again
00:23:52
this is great and this house hack like I
00:23:55
think the first three months I cried
00:23:58
every day and I was like we ruined our
00:23:59
life here um like it was really really
00:24:02
stressful and overwhelming um but now
00:24:06
looking back on everything we are such
00:24:09
better investors we've gotten such
00:24:12
experience when things break now I don't
00:24:15
cry I'm just like okay what do I need to
00:24:17
do so you know all of that challenge
00:24:20
really made us better um in a lot of
00:24:22
ways and sometimes like that's like the
00:24:24
Catch 22 like there's a there's an
00:24:26
expression I like if you know jao
00:24:28
willink all he says embrace the suck and
00:24:31
like it's not always fun to like do hard
00:24:33
things but it's the hard things that are
00:24:35
actually going to make you way better um
00:24:37
and now yeah I feel like a way more
00:24:40
confident real estate investor because
00:24:42
of the hard stuff that we had to go
00:24:44
through I love I mean it totally is a
00:24:46
catch 22 and the way you guys explained
00:24:49
it it makes perfect sense how
00:24:51
challenging it would be going through it
00:24:54
and then potentially I can only think of
00:24:56
going through it and kind of having
00:24:58
those like oh moments and and
00:24:59
feeling a little regret myself but then
00:25:02
when you're on the other side and you
00:25:03
realize how you've grown from it whether
00:25:05
it's your your actual you know kind of
00:25:07
mechanical skills of fixing things up or
00:25:10
whether it's maybe what you want to look
00:25:11
at next time in a property and some of
00:25:13
those investing lessons like that is
00:25:15
where the money is made right that's
00:25:17
where the bread gets buttered and the
00:25:18
real value is yeah no I love that and
00:25:21
yeah it is it was like we went to School
00:25:24
of Real Estate and we paid probably
00:25:26
about 15,00
00:25:28
to learn a lot more than we had ever
00:25:30
known yeah and now yeah now we're better
00:25:33
investors because of it but what I will
00:25:35
say too what's kind of cool about real
00:25:36
estate is so I mean we bought the
00:25:39
property um for
00:25:41
150,000 and day one I mean we knew we we
00:25:45
were getting a decent deal but it
00:25:46
appraised for
00:25:48
168,000 and this was before we had put
00:25:50
any of the work into it so right now
00:25:52
it's probably about 178 180,000
00:25:55
depending on you know who you talk to
00:25:58
um you know so sometimes with real
00:25:59
estate you have what's called forced
00:26:01
appreciation so there's natural
00:26:03
appreciation just from market conditions
00:26:05
and then you as the investor can
00:26:07
actually make the property worth more
00:26:09
because it can now produce more based on
00:26:11
the work you did gotcha so that that
00:26:14
would just mean you guys put in a better
00:26:16
kitchen or you guys made it a finished
00:26:18
basement and therefore the the home is
00:26:21
worth more or the very least you can
00:26:22
rent it out for more both both yeah both
00:26:25
okay very interesting very interesting
00:26:27
so that's something I've been thinking
00:26:28
about the property that I'm talking to
00:26:30
you from right now is my personal
00:26:33
property that my girlfriend and I might
00:26:35
end up moving out of in the near future
00:26:37
we'll see and uh one question I've had
00:26:40
for myself is what money do I put into
00:26:42
this property with the expectation that
00:26:44
I'll get it back out when I sell you
00:26:46
know and then so I'm thinking about for
00:26:48
example upgrading the bathroom because I
00:26:50
think that might be something that is
00:26:52
truly value added it's a pretty small
00:26:53
bathroom it's like a Harry Potter closet
00:26:56
I think if I expand that that it might
00:26:58
actually Help The Help the place rent
00:27:01
out a little bit better so a lot of
00:27:03
times I mean you could take some of the
00:27:04
guess workk out of it too so like if you
00:27:07
go on like Facebook Marketplace or
00:27:09
Craigslist or Zillow and stuff like that
00:27:11
and there's neighboring homes like
00:27:13
single family similar layout and stuff
00:27:15
like that and they're for rent you can
00:27:18
kind of gauge okay well like this is our
00:27:20
home as is these are the homes this is
00:27:22
kind of our competition if you will um
00:27:25
how does our home compare because
00:27:27
sometimes what people do kind of get
00:27:28
into trouble is they without kind of
00:27:31
doing that market analysis they put a
00:27:33
bunch of money in thinking like nice
00:27:34
we're going to totally recoup this and
00:27:36
then they like over renovate kind of
00:27:38
thing whereas as is it might be ready to
00:27:40
go like as an example um with our
00:27:43
neighborhood that we live in we live in
00:27:45
a nice neighborhood it's not bougie it's
00:27:47
a workingclass neighborhood it's a safe
00:27:49
affordable community and um you know you
00:27:52
could really get carried away with
00:27:54
Renovations you could do granite
00:27:55
countertops and put in hardwood floors
00:27:57
and all of these things I know that
00:27:59
based on Market rents in my neighborhood
00:28:02
I would never make my money back if I
00:28:03
put all of those fancy finishes in um
00:28:06
because you just can't charge that where
00:28:08
we live um so I think it it's really
00:28:11
important to do your analysis because
00:28:13
you might look at properties in your
00:28:14
neighborhood and yours is the nicest one
00:28:17
and you're like oh I can just actually
00:28:20
do it as is and I probably could get
00:28:22
some great tenants so yeah we'll talk
00:28:24
when you get to that point let's let's
00:28:26
uh work together on that one yeah very
00:28:28
interesting um and it does actually make
00:28:30
me wonder like what kind of thought
00:28:32
process do you guys put into setting
00:28:34
your prices do you try to meet what the
00:28:37
market rate is in your area or I've
00:28:39
heard some people say they actually try
00:28:40
to rent they charge a little bit above
00:28:43
Market rates almost to project this this
00:28:46
message that my property is a little bit
00:28:48
nicer than average what what do you guys
00:28:50
think about that that's actually very
00:28:51
interesting to hear that um we have a
00:28:54
very very involved process and Analysis
00:28:57
that I'm not going to bore you with but
00:28:58
we spend a lot of time making sure that
00:29:02
we are appropriate with our rent we use
00:29:04
a lot of different resources we go on
00:29:06
Facebook as Josh said Zillow rentometer
00:29:09
is another um app that you can use so we
00:29:12
go on multiple sites to kind of look at
00:29:14
comparable Apartments um but then after
00:29:18
that we really like to not charge the
00:29:21
tippy top of the market or above we like
00:29:24
to come in a little lower or at Market
00:29:27
or maybe a touch lower um and the reason
00:29:30
for that is because if you're charging
00:29:33
the very very top you need to have a
00:29:36
great reason about why you're charging
00:29:38
it and in today's day and age you have
00:29:41
all of these massive luxury apartment
00:29:44
complexes that are offering a gym and
00:29:46
snow removal and Grant you know
00:29:49
everything and we are not that you know
00:29:52
we are the small potato landlords we own
00:29:54
a couple duplexes and we offer a lot of
00:29:56
great am amenities but we're not that so
00:29:59
when you charge a little below um that
00:30:02
tippy top um I think it actually helps
00:30:05
with tenant retention people want to
00:30:07
stay there longer because they feel like
00:30:08
they're getting a good deal um anything
00:30:11
else you want to add yeah well I think
00:30:13
sometimes like the hidden cost like you
00:30:15
talk about like Finance hidden cost and
00:30:17
finance is inflation in real estate it's
00:30:19
vacancy and I think sometimes people get
00:30:23
overzealous sometimes thinking like oh
00:30:25
I'll get the top market right well every
00:30:28
single month that that property is not
00:30:30
rented that is however many dollars
00:30:33
every single month you're not collecting
00:30:35
um and unless you have a really really
00:30:37
big portfolio I mean if you go two
00:30:39
months without rent that could be an
00:30:40
entire year worth of cash flow right
00:30:43
there we actually have friends and
00:30:45
coaching clients that we've worked with
00:30:47
that have priced their Apartments too
00:30:49
high and some of them they've been
00:30:51
without tenants for like three or four
00:30:53
months and then we talk to them and we
00:30:55
do an analysis with them and we're like
00:30:57
your apartment is $200 too high or
00:31:00
whatever the number is and they bring it
00:31:02
to the number that makes more sense and
00:31:04
they get dozens of applicants so the
00:31:07
number really could impact you a lot so
00:31:09
that's why it's important to have that
00:31:11
forethought got that's really cool I
00:31:13
mean that is a uh I'm a bit of an
00:31:15
economics nerd and that is a supply and
00:31:17
demand pricing model example right there
00:31:19
right if if you're price is too high
00:31:23
then the demand at that price is going
00:31:25
to be low and no one's going to no 's
00:31:27
goingon to eat up your supply so you
00:31:29
have to lower the price to make that uh
00:31:31
supply and demand
00:31:32
meet our big thing too is like we like
00:31:35
the idea of uh if someone was living
00:31:38
somewhere else and they wanted to kind
00:31:39
of like work upwards towards something
00:31:41
like that what we own we we have a spot
00:31:44
for them or we've also had tenants who
00:31:46
came from very very high or more
00:31:49
expensive apartments and they wanted
00:31:51
something to work down but it's still
00:31:52
like a safe clean neighborhood and we
00:31:54
can kind of acest depending on where
00:31:56
people are coming Goldie Locks the
00:31:58
Goldie Locks apartments right excellent
00:32:01
and one thing you touched on there that
00:32:03
is a huge point at least from my point
00:32:04
of view you said you know bacancy is
00:32:07
your is your worst enemy one of the
00:32:10
worst enemies because I just did a quick
00:32:13
quick math right so if you lose two
00:32:14
months of rent on vacancy out of a year
00:32:17
two out of 12 months you're losing 177%
00:32:20
of your revenue and on any sort of
00:32:22
investment if you're losing 177% of your
00:32:25
return from somewhere that might be all
00:32:28
the profit and then some for that year
00:32:30
so that that is huge so I can see how
00:32:32
tenant retention is is kind of Paramount
00:32:35
in your minds crucial y yeah and we
00:32:37
spend a lot of time not only in terms of
00:32:40
the pricing of our Apartments um but we
00:32:43
also spend a lot of time being I would
00:32:45
say very handson landlords um what's
00:32:49
nice about being a small potato
00:32:51
landlords um and buying Pro properties
00:32:54
in close proximity Is that relatively
00:32:56
speaking speaking you know if a tenant
00:32:58
has a question concern we can act on
00:33:00
that very quickly um and a lot of times
00:33:02
tenants when they come to us and we kind
00:33:04
of screen them they tell us the
00:33:06
experience that they had with their
00:33:08
prior landlord and we do our best to not
00:33:10
replicate that gotcha gotcha a couple
00:33:14
things you've said I've got some little
00:33:16
questions that I thought might be might
00:33:18
be interesting so the one now that you
00:33:20
have two houses am I safe in assuming
00:33:22
that you guys have 30-year mortgages on
00:33:24
those houses or what do your mortgages
00:33:26
look like yep we have 30-year fixed
00:33:28
mortgages um the first Josh knows all
00:33:31
the numbers I don't even try to memorize
00:33:32
them what's the APR for both of them
00:33:34
yeah so the first one was 487 that one
00:33:37
we bought in uh end of 2018 where rates
00:33:39
were a little bit higher um this one
00:33:42
that we're in right now we just closed
00:33:44
well not just closed but last year um we
00:33:47
bought it at
00:33:48
2.7% okay okay and then 30 year I mean
00:33:51
it makes sense to me on its face the
00:33:53
idea is that you want to keep your costs
00:33:56
lower so that your cash flow stays
00:33:57
positive so a 15-year mortgage doesn't
00:34:00
really make sense just because it makes
00:34:01
it harder to be cash flow positive is
00:34:03
that the thinking yeah that's exactly
00:34:05
yeah and also you really want your
00:34:08
tenants to be paying off your asset for
00:34:10
you you make that initial investment on
00:34:13
the actual down payment and closing
00:34:15
costs um and then of course if any
00:34:17
improvements need to be made you're
00:34:19
doing that but really the goal of this
00:34:21
is that you have renters and every month
00:34:23
they pay that rent and eventually the
00:34:25
principal is paid down in 30 years and
00:34:27
you own a property free and clear and
00:34:29
for us too sometimes I I refer to it as
00:34:32
like knowing which ending of the game
00:34:33
you're in so right now we are very
00:34:36
comfortable taking on Leverage in the
00:34:38
form of a mortgage um because by doing
00:34:40
so it allows us to right have higher
00:34:43
cash flow um which then covers more of
00:34:45
our cost of living which keeps more
00:34:47
student loans which keeps more of our
00:34:48
money in our pockets which then
00:34:50
expedites the process um of saving up
00:34:53
for down payments eventually um and
00:34:56
we're probably not that far off right
00:34:58
now from where we want our our kind of
00:35:00
final portfolio to be if you will once
00:35:03
we're kind of at that point we're not
00:35:05
opposed to even if it's just one
00:35:07
mortgage um kind of like rental debt
00:35:09
snowballing that if you will getting
00:35:12
that at least paid off which then it's
00:35:14
kind of like you're going from offense
00:35:15
to defense a little bit that will um
00:35:18
boost the cash flow because the
00:35:19
principal interest is now gone um which
00:35:22
covers more of our cost of living um but
00:35:25
that's really once our portfolio is
00:35:27
where we want it to be but right now we
00:35:29
at we're just 30-year mortgages and
00:35:30
we're letting other people pay off the
00:35:32
houses and Rental debt snowball for
00:35:34
those that don't know is where you take
00:35:36
the cash flow from every property and
00:35:38
you kind of lump it together every month
00:35:40
and throw extra payments at your
00:35:42
principal for one property so
00:35:44
technically your rents and your tenants
00:35:47
rent money is still paying off that
00:35:49
mortgage it's not necessarily your money
00:35:51
out of pocket um so then you own a
00:35:53
property with no mortgage gotcha very
00:35:56
cool and and I could see how over time
00:35:59
these decisions meaning you know the the
00:36:01
30-year mortgage decision or the the
00:36:03
rental debt snowball decisions over time
00:36:06
they're going to compound to the point
00:36:08
that's allow you if you wanted to you
00:36:10
could essentially build your Empire more
00:36:12
quickly then right if you do a 15-year
00:36:14
mortgage actually more money is leaving
00:36:16
your pocket every month in the form of
00:36:18
mortgage payments which means you can't
00:36:20
save up that money for the next down
00:36:21
payment on the next house exactly yeah
00:36:24
yeah no I think so our just an of like
00:36:27
the Snowball Effect it took us about a
00:36:29
year to save up probably actually a
00:36:31
little bit longer to save up for our
00:36:33
first uh investment property and we need
00:36:35
a little bit of help from family it took
00:36:37
us probably about six months to save up
00:36:40
for our second property um and it just
00:36:42
continues to compound and get faster and
00:36:44
faster just as um as our properties
00:36:47
continue to perform as our incomes
00:36:49
continue to SL steadily rise and then
00:36:51
our expenses um they haven't really gone
00:36:54
lower but the income our expenses
00:36:55
haven't really gone up either yeah yeah
00:36:58
out of curiosity and you don't have to
00:37:00
answer if you don't want to I know a lot
00:37:01
can change over time but what are your
00:37:03
long-term aspirations with real estate
00:37:06
investing I mean do you have five house
00:37:08
10 house or or is the sky the limit um
00:37:11
as of right now well our first phase of
00:37:14
real estate investing was that we wanted
00:37:17
enough Apartments to pay the mortgage of
00:37:19
a single family home so for us that
00:37:22
looks like probably um six units or
00:37:27
three duplexes um so our first phase we
00:37:31
want to get one more property and the
00:37:33
cash flow from all three of those
00:37:35
properties will pay the mortgage for our
00:37:37
own primary residence um but I think
00:37:40
like the next phase of that is probably
00:37:42
like 10 units 12 units um we'll see how
00:37:46
that feels and if that feels good but
00:37:48
that's kind of our plan for now um we
00:37:51
don't have ambitious goals of owning
00:37:52
hundreds of units I don't think that's
00:37:54
us and that will ever be us um but those
00:37:57
are kind of our our goals for
00:37:59
now very cool makes a lot of sense to me
00:38:02
I I would probably be in the same boat
00:38:04
for what it's worth I think it'd be
00:38:05
great to have that not passive as we
00:38:08
said earlier but semi-passive income
00:38:10
that's kind of paying some of the bills
00:38:12
but uh I I don't think I'd want maybe
00:38:14
the stress that would come with a large
00:38:17
real estate Empire yeah no that's not
00:38:19
really our gym I mean our whole thing
00:38:21
like allly was saying before is like so
00:38:24
we're we're not like some people like
00:38:26
love real estate and they're all about
00:38:27
real estate I mean we like real estate
00:38:29
because what it does for us from an
00:38:30
economic standpoint but if if you showed
00:38:33
us an investment tomorrow that was like
00:38:35
this will give you way better returns
00:38:37
that's where our money is going so right
00:38:39
now we haven't found anything to
00:38:41
necessarily beat it in terms of our
00:38:42
goals um but we also on the side in
00:38:46
conjunction with real estate we're also
00:38:47
building our Index Fund portfolio and we
00:38:50
want to try to have as many legs under
00:38:52
our financial table as possible so that
00:38:55
if one day we're like you know what
00:38:56
forget about this whole real estate
00:38:57
thing we have three or four other income
00:39:00
streams that can support us very nice
00:39:02
let's talk about that for for a couple
00:39:03
minutes so your index fund portfolio
00:39:06
just out of curiosity uh as do you take
00:39:09
advantage of like tax advantaged
00:39:11
accounts or kind of where are your where
00:39:13
are your index fund Investments being
00:39:15
made and then which index funds are you
00:39:18
choosing to invest into yeah so we both
00:39:22
tax advantage and uh non-t tax advantage
00:39:25
so we have a Roth IRA
00:39:27
um and then we have a taxable brokerage
00:39:29
account and so both of which well
00:39:31
actually the Roth IR rate is comprised
00:39:34
of the S&P 500 so we use vanguards and
00:39:37
it's actually it's not an index fund
00:39:39
technically it's an exchange traded fund
00:39:41
yeah okay so it's it's vo the Vanguard
00:39:44
S&P 500 um and it's entirely S&P 500 and
00:39:49
then in our taxable brokerage it's 100%
00:39:53
vti which is the Vanguard Total stock
00:39:56
market Index Fund um which is basically
00:39:59
you own uh a share in every publicly
00:40:02
traded company in the United State so in
00:40:05
essence you own the entire economy um
00:40:07
and those are the two funds that we own
00:40:10
excellent excellent I can support both
00:40:12
those funds and and we've talked about
00:40:13
index funds a lot here on the best
00:40:15
interest podcast and I think Vu and vti
00:40:18
have come up before but if not the idea
00:40:21
of uh total Market us funds or large cap
00:40:24
S&P funds have come up before terrific
00:40:27
Investments one more this is a fun
00:40:29
question guys before we get into the
00:40:31
classic uh rapid fire questions I did
00:40:33
have one note I took and I'm looking
00:40:35
over here on the side because this where
00:40:37
I keep my notes so you mention that you
00:40:39
didn't go on a honeymoon which is a very
00:40:42
pragmatic choice to help you save for
00:40:44
this first house but my two-part
00:40:46
question is have you done something
00:40:48
since that's been like a honeymoon or if
00:40:50
not where would you eventually take your
00:40:53
honeymoon where would you go great
00:40:55
questions so we got married um we went
00:40:59
on a Mini Moon we did a little uh
00:41:02
weekend away in Cape and Massachusetts
00:41:05
which is north of Cape Cod it was really
00:41:07
nice um but then a year later actually
00:41:10
like on the anniversary of our wedding
00:41:13
we did a two and a half week road trip
00:41:15
out in California we saw the Redwoods we
00:41:19
went hiking in yosity we went to all
00:41:21
your classic you know touristy stops up
00:41:23
and down the coast lots of outdoorsy
00:41:25
Adventure stuff and the coolest thing
00:41:28
about it is that we were able to pay for
00:41:30
the trip in cash from all of the money
00:41:33
that we saved house hacking so we kind
00:41:36
of like cash flow to Honeymoon so pretty
00:41:39
cool and definitely worth the wait if we
00:41:41
if we had just you know kind of didn't
00:41:44
delay that gratification we probably
00:41:46
would have came back with a ton of debt
00:41:48
and we were new Real Estate Investors so
00:41:51
um we were really really excited but we
00:41:53
wanted to do it in a way that aligned
00:41:54
with what we were trying to accomplish
00:41:56
accomplish um and it just it made it
00:41:58
that much better to have a wonderful
00:42:00
experience and not come back with a butt
00:42:02
ton of
00:42:03
day all right guys rapid fire question
00:42:06
time and feel free you can take these
00:42:08
one one on-one or you can answer
00:42:11
together totally up to you the first one
00:42:14
though is a way that I do my CH uh
00:42:15
Christmas shopping it's uh what was the
00:42:18
last material object or personal luxury
00:42:21
that you spent $100 or more
00:42:25
on I just bought a pair of Birkenstock
00:42:28
sandals today oh wow okay yeah but I
00:42:32
didn't tell Josh and we normally tell
00:42:34
each other about 100
00:42:37
or yeah so I'm telling you I um I got an
00:42:41
iPad off of a Facebook Marketplace about
00:42:45
a month and a half ago very cool very
00:42:48
cool well this can also serve as the
00:42:49
best interest confessional so feel free
00:42:52
you know we
00:42:54
can this is a safe environment to talk
00:42:57
about our purchases you know money is a
00:43:00
topic those are both those are both
00:43:02
awesome purchases right nice sandals
00:43:04
very important iPad very cool I'm
00:43:07
talking to you guys through a a Macbook
00:43:09
that I got probably three months ago now
00:43:11
and it's so cool I should have owned one
00:43:13
much longer
00:43:15
ago all right next question what's a
00:43:19
good habit that you're trying to form or
00:43:21
a bad habit that you're trying to
00:43:23
break um so my big thing is getting back
00:43:27
into fitness so I have been a lifelong
00:43:30
athlete um played multiple Sports and
00:43:34
part of a lot of recreational leagues
00:43:35
but I've pretty much been fairly
00:43:39
sedentary for about a year and a half or
00:43:40
so um minus like the occasional plan of
00:43:43
Fitness Excursion so really trying to
00:43:45
get back into the swing of things of
00:43:47
just like overall Fitness I think it's
00:43:49
been hard with covid because I think
00:43:51
with all the craziness going on you know
00:43:53
I think we had a pretty con consistent
00:43:55
routine prior to to covid um but I feel
00:43:57
like we never fully got out of it or
00:44:00
back into it rather um so I'd agree with
00:44:03
that for sure gotcha here here same same
00:44:07
old story on my
00:44:09
end um next one what's your favorite
00:44:12
Financial tool or app or service that
00:44:15
you use and why do you like it oh man um
00:44:19
so I'll give you two for me uh so I
00:44:22
really really like personal Capital as
00:44:25
far as track ing our finances um it's
00:44:28
just a nice One-Stop shop it kind of
00:44:30
Aggregates all the data and it gives you
00:44:33
a nice kind of breakdown of this is your
00:44:35
spending every single month this is your
00:44:36
net worth this is how everything's going
00:44:39
so I really really like that and then
00:44:41
kind of like the running joke of our
00:44:43
house is like the most popular app on my
00:44:45
phone is the calculator um because I
00:44:49
always you're always on the calculator I
00:44:51
am always running numbers whether it's a
00:44:53
rental property prospective rental
00:44:55
property Ro y a stock index you name it
00:44:58
I'm always running numbers pretty much
00:45:00
non-stop so the calculator app on my
00:45:03
phone so because Josh shared our
00:45:05
favorite personal finance app I'm going
00:45:07
to go a little out of the box with this
00:45:09
one and um during the peak of covid
00:45:12
before we made the five couple we
00:45:13
watched the documentary called the
00:45:15
social Dilemma on Netflix it if you
00:45:18
watched it it's like very
00:45:19
thought-provoking and depresses you a
00:45:21
little so we watched it and then I went
00:45:24
on my personal Instagram account and I'm
00:45:26
following tons of different influencers
00:45:29
accounts whatever um mostly people that
00:45:31
make me want to spend my money on
00:45:34
clothes or you know I feel bad after
00:45:37
looking at them because I'm like wow
00:45:38
they're like such an Instagram model
00:45:40
right so I decided that I didn't want to
00:45:42
be a consumer of things that were not
00:45:45
fulfilling me and making me feel better
00:45:47
about myself or helping improve me in
00:45:49
some way um so I started following
00:45:52
educational platforms and I think my
00:45:55
favorite person personal finance at for
00:45:57
us is Instagram because I think there is
00:46:00
such incredible knowledge and resources
00:46:02
and people and Community um on Instagram
00:46:05
and we learn so much every day from
00:46:09
experts in different fields so I feel
00:46:11
like we surround ourselves with such an
00:46:13
awesome personal finance community on
00:46:15
Instagram I think it just like when you
00:46:17
surround yourself with people that get
00:46:19
it um it forces you to level up and I
00:46:22
think it has really forced us to level
00:46:24
up in so many different ways yeah I'd
00:46:26
agree with that that's an awesome answer
00:46:28
and we're going to come back to
00:46:29
Instagram in a few seconds because I
00:46:31
think after this podcast a lot of people
00:46:33
are going to want to connect with you
00:46:35
guys on Instagram and we'll talk about
00:46:36
how they can do that but real quick
00:46:39
before one more question I will say I
00:46:42
did not tell these guys that the podcast
00:46:44
is sponsored by personal Capital so Josh
00:46:48
thank you for the excellent advertising
00:46:51
folks if you want to sign up for
00:46:52
personal Capital hit up that link in the
00:46:54
show notes
00:46:56
oh cool it's a good app it is a good app
00:47:00
Josh and Ally agree um so one last
00:47:03
question before we get to the important
00:47:05
you know how do people contact you the
00:47:07
last rapid fire question is if I gave
00:47:09
you guys a billboard and you could share
00:47:11
any message with the world what would
00:47:14
you
00:47:15
say uh do good to others you know that's
00:47:19
honestly I that's my my number one thing
00:47:22
and whether it's the five couple or just
00:47:23
like in my personal life I think a lot
00:47:26
of times we're like oh man like how can
00:47:28
I change the world and that's like a
00:47:29
really really daunting thing I think
00:47:32
sometimes we underestimate how impactful
00:47:34
just a small kind act of kindness can
00:47:36
have on like a person's life and you
00:47:38
never know like how much they needed
00:47:40
that nice gesture whatever it is um so I
00:47:43
would just say like do kind things to
00:47:45
others just because it's a nice thing to
00:47:47
do I would say something different but I
00:47:50
agree with that I don't think that's a
00:47:52
bad one right um we talk a lot about
00:47:54
like our why and why we're doing
00:47:56
everything and it's because like our
00:47:57
time is finite it's the most precious
00:48:00
commodity in the world so it is I don't
00:48:02
know if that's what my billboard would
00:48:04
say but something along that effect of
00:48:07
are you living the life you want to live
00:48:09
are you spending your time the way you
00:48:10
want to spend it and if you're not what
00:48:12
do you need to do to do it differently
00:48:14
for us we are aggressively paying down
00:48:16
debt and investing so that we can quit
00:48:18
our ninetto FES and have more time with
00:48:21
each other and the people that we love
00:48:23
so I think it's a great thing to do yeah
00:48:28
I love both those Billboards I would I
00:48:30
would honk at those Billboards as I
00:48:33
went um well thank you guys so much for
00:48:36
coming on the podcast and as I alluded
00:48:38
to a couple minutes ago people are going
00:48:39
to want to reach out to you how can they
00:48:41
do so so you can pretty much find us on
00:48:44
most social media platforms on Instagram
00:48:46
we are at the FI couple um we have a
00:48:50
Twitter the F couple and uh is that it
00:48:54
well we also have a website we have a
00:48:55
website
00:48:57
www.the couple.com yeah no and and
00:49:00
honestly we try to be as responsive as
00:49:02
possible so if people have questions
00:49:04
feel free to shoot us a DM or an email
00:49:06
uh infothe couple.com um we talked a lot
00:49:10
today about real estate um that's
00:49:11
something we are very passionate about
00:49:13
and specifically house hacking uh so
00:49:16
passionate about that we decided to
00:49:17
write a book on that topic and so it's
00:49:21
it's all the information we wish we knew
00:49:23
when we first started buying real estate
00:49:25
and so so uh we put that into an ebook
00:49:27
so if you go to our Instagram uh it's
00:49:29
right in our bio um and we'd love to
00:49:32
hear your reviews excellent and after
00:49:34
everything you guys have kind of
00:49:36
enlightened me and us with today I can
00:49:39
tell that book is going to be chalk full
00:49:41
of knowledge so very cool Ally and Josh
00:49:44
thank you so much for coming on to the
00:49:45
best interest podcast thank you so much
00:49:48
it's been so much fun yeah absolutely
00:49:50
it's a
00:49:51
[Music]
00:49:54
pleasure
00:49:57
huge shout out to the FI couple thank
00:50:00
you guys for coming on to the best
00:50:02
interest podcast and if you want to get
00:50:04
a hold of Ally and Josh the FI couple
00:50:06
I've included all of their links in the
00:50:09
show notes if you want to reach out to
00:50:11
me my email is Jesse bestter interest.
00:50:13
blog you can follow me on Twitter where
00:50:15
my username is
00:50:17
bestore JC or you can follow me on
00:50:20
Instagram where my username is the best
00:50:23
interest JC
00:50:26
if you find this content valuable and
00:50:28
you want to give back there are three
00:50:29
easy free options for you the first one
00:50:32
subscribe to this podcast via the app
00:50:34
you're listening to right now and the
00:50:37
second and third options are to leave a
00:50:39
rating and leave a review of the best
00:50:41
interest podcast tell me what you think
00:50:43
I love hearing back from you guys we can
00:50:46
continue to invest in one another
00:50:47
because as Ben Franklin said an
00:50:49
investment in knowledge pays the best
00:50:51
interest sharing with others is
00:50:53
investing in their knowledge so thank
00:50:55
you all for listening to this episode
00:50:57
number 35 of the best interest
00:51:00
[Music]
00:51:15
podcast that is so cool that is so cool
00:51:18
all right all right time for well
00:51:21
actually I'm sorry I'm sorry you just
00:51:24
butt of De what the f is that so no I
00:51:28
have like I have like all these things
00:51:29
were you trying to say a ton but
00:51:31
you were making it appropriate no I just
00:51:33
I have all these little I've never heard
00:51:35
you say butt ton yeah I say butt ton I
00:51:38
say Eager Beaver I like don't say butt
00:51:41
ton that needs to end yeah I don't I
00:51:43
it's not a I'm sorry just so you guys
00:51:46
know I usually clip out the funny audio
00:51:48
clips and I stick them at the end of the
00:51:49
episode after the credits so like this
00:51:51
is this might have to go first just so
00:51:54
everybody knows what they're getting
00:51:55
into people were on the live last night
00:51:58
and like I don't think about it I just
00:52:00
like it's like things you pick up your
00:52:02
why your mom says butt ton yeah Mom says
00:52:06
butt ton like I literally can't even
00:52:08
hear this word it's the dumbest word
00:52:09
I've ever heard all right no I I could
00:52:11
see it I could see it I mean right I you
00:52:13
know ton got a ton of ton
00:52:16
of stuff and then you know a mom wants
00:52:19
to make it a little more appropriate she
00:52:21
says butt ton butt ton I get it I get it
00:52:24
I'm not saying that I I'm I'm trying to
00:52:28
I'm trying to be the mediator here
00:52:30
because I'm not sure that I would you
00:52:32
know I'm not sure I want to incorporate
00:52:33
buttton in my vocabulary all I'm saying
00:52:36
is I I know where it comes from the
00:52:38
atmology makes sense to me that's 100%
00:52:40
accurate I guarantee that's yours so it
00:52:43
was just a mom trying to do good by her
00:52:45
son and you're hating on it okay well
00:52:48
moving
00:52:50
on all right guys I've got a butt ton of
00:52:53
Rapid Fire questions for you
00:52:56
h

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most inspiring
  • 60
    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • House Hacking Explained
    House hacking allows you to live for cheap or free by renting out part of your home.
    “House hacking is amazing!”
    @ 07m 15s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Cost of Housing
    Housing is usually the most expensive line item in someone's budget. Learn how to cut costs.
    “Housing is usually the most expensive line item in someone's budget.”
    @ 10m 00s
    January 29, 2024
  • Living in Old Homes
    If it's still standing after 120 years, it's not too bad!
    “If it's still standing after 120 years, it's not too bad!”
    @ 14m 04s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Reality of Real Estate Investing
    Investing in real estate is often portrayed as passive, but it can be quite active and demanding.
    “Real estate investing is not passive; it's an adventure!”
    @ 21m 41s
    January 29, 2024
  • Lessons from Challenges
    Facing difficulties in property management can lead to becoming a better investor.
    “Embrace the suck; it's the hard things that make you better.”
    @ 24m 28s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Value of Experience
    Learning through challenges in real estate can significantly enhance your investing skills.
    “We went to the School of Real Estate and paid to learn!”
    @ 25m 21s
    January 29, 2024
  • Investing in Index Funds
    They discuss their investment strategy, focusing on index funds like Vanguard's S&P 500.
    “We want to try to have as many legs under our financial table as possible.”
    @ 38m 55s
    January 29, 2024
  • A Pragmatic Honeymoon
    Instead of a traditional honeymoon, they opted for a mini-moon and a cash-funded road trip.
    “We kind of like cash flow to honeymoon, so pretty cool and definitely worth the wait.”
    @ 41m 39s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Power of Kindness
    They emphasize the impact of small acts of kindness in changing the world.
    “Sometimes we underestimate how impactful just a small kind act of kindness can be.”
    @ 47m 34s
    January 29, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Cost of Housing10:00
  • Old Homes14:04
  • Time Investment20:01
  • Property Challenges20:44
  • Market Analysis28:11
  • Tenant Retention32:35
  • Mini-Moon Adventure40:59
  • Kindness Matters47:34

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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