{"id":9516,"date":"2023-10-04T12:18:49","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T12:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/?p=9516"},"modified":"2023-10-04T12:18:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T12:18:49","slug":"from-parents-basement-to-full-time-investor-and-2500-month-with-one-rental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/04\/from-parents-basement-to-full-time-investor-and-2500-month-with-one-rental\/","title":{"rendered":"From Parents\u2019 Basement to Full-Time Investor and $2,500\/Month with ONE Rental"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>In just a few years, you can go from no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/rental-property-cash-flow-analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>cash flow<\/strong><\/a> or investing experience to owning a sizable<strong> real estate portfolio<\/strong>, with <strong>passive income<\/strong> flowing in and free rent, <strong>EVEN if you\u2019re in your early to mid twenties<\/strong>. Not possible? Today\u2019s guest would beg to differ.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome back to the <strong><em>Real Estate Rookie<\/em> podcast<\/strong>! Today, we\u2019re chatting with <strong>investor<\/strong> <strong>Noah Sprimont<\/strong>, who has had quite the <strong>real estate journey<\/strong> to date. Noah became obsessed with the idea of reaching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/real-estate-742\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>financial freedom through real estate<\/strong><\/a> while he and his now-fianc\u00e9e were living with his parents. To fast-track his development, he not only immersed himself in <strong>BiggerPockets<\/strong> content but also <strong>took up several W2 jobs<\/strong> that would help him <strong>hone the skills<\/strong> <strong>he needed<\/strong> to become a <strong>successful investor<\/strong>. Laser-focused on <strong>making it in real estate<\/strong>, Noah dabbled in several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/which-real-estate-investing-strategy-is-best-for-your-goals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>real estate strategies<\/strong><\/a> before discovering the <strong>cash flow potential of <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/guides\/the-ultimate-guide-to-short-term-rental-properties\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>short-term rentals<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If a bumpy start to your real estate journey has caused you to feel discouraged, you\u2019ll want to hear how Noah was able to tackle his own <strong>feelings of self-doubt<\/strong> and <strong>fear of the unknown<\/strong> in this episode. You\u2019ll also learn <strong>which skills can help you prepare for real estate investing<\/strong>, how <strong>to find flexible financing options<\/strong> for your deals, and <strong>what <em>every<\/em> rookie investor can bring to a <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/real-estate-investing-partnership-types\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>partnership<\/strong><\/a>\u2014regardless of the number in your bank account!<\/p>\n<div style=\"overflow-y: scroll; max-height: 400px; background: #eee; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>This is Real Estate Rookie episode 327.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Three years ago, my fiance and I were living in my parent\u2019s basement when we decided \u2026 that we wanted to buy a fixer-upper house. And fast-forward to today, we have a small portfolio of single family and multifamily properties. We have a mixed batch of short-term and long-term rentals. We self-manage everything together. I work in the business and she works full-time at her W2 job to kind of provide us with a secure paycheck while I\u2019m able to risk the income we make from the business and continue to grow the business.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>My name is Ashley Kehr, and I\u2019m here with my co-host Tony J. Robinson.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>And welcome to the Real Estate Rookie Podcast where every week, twice a week, we bring you the inspiration, motivation and the stories you just really need to hear to kickstart your investing journey. And today we\u2019ve got one of those really good stories to kind of give you that kick in the butt that you need to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>There is a super inspirational story that just touched mine and Tony\u2019s hearts about our guest today. Noah going to BP Con in 2021, but Noah today is sharing how he rehabbed properties. He worked several different jobs that helped him a little bit understand construction for real estate, but not really. And he goes through how he was able to learn. He talks about his second property being with a partner, and of course, we love partnerships here. Make sure, if you haven\u2019t already, visit biggerpockets.com\/partnerships to see mine and Tony\u2019s new book Real Estate Partnerships.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Noah also shares a really interesting story, and you\u2019re going to love hearing this about some creative ways to finance your real estate deals. Ash and I talk a lot about different strategies we\u2019ve used, but I really love what he did, so you\u2019ll really want to make sure to pay attention for that piece as well.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Noah, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us today. Can you kind of get us started with how you got started in real estate and maybe even before that, what were you doing before real estate?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So first, I just want to thank you guys for having me on. This podcast has been a huge inspiration to be over the years, so to be on here speaking, it\u2019s really surreal. But yeah, a little bit about me. My name is Noah Sprimont. I\u2019m 25 years old. I was born and raised in Dubuque, Iowa. Three years ago, my fiance and I were living in my parents\u2019 basement when we decided that we wanted to buy a fixer-upper house. And fast-forward today, we have a small portfolio of single-family and multifamily properties. We have a mixed batch of short-term and long-term rentals. We self-manage everything together. I work in the business and she works full-time at her W2 job to kind of provide us with a secure paycheck while I\u2019m able to risk the income we make from the business and continue to grow the business.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Noah, there is a lot I want to get into on that, but first of all, congratulations on being a real estate investor and actually taking that leap and growing your portfolio. What about when you were living in your parent\u2019s basement, before you took those steps to start investing in real estate? What were you doing before that?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So I mean, out of high school I was pretty frustrated. Most kids probably that can\u2019t really find what they want to do and maybe feel indemnified for it. So I spent a lot of time probably watching YouTube videos and doing stuff like that. During those early days, I actually stumbled into some of the earlier BiggerPockets stuff a long time ago and would watch Brandon Turner talking about doing those things. So that\u2019s really what kind of got the gears turning. I guess right before we lived in my parents\u2019 basement, we rented a house with five other friends of ours, and we were the ones that kind of put the deal together. So that really kind of got us thinking about if we can get creative with our living arrangement, I guess we can potentially lower the cost, our monthly living expense.<br \/>And one thing led to another, we basically said, okay, if we can do that with a rental property, maybe we can do this with a house that we buy and own and instead of paying rent each month, we can be paying a mortgage down. Just from my parents\u2019 basement, we moved into there after that rental house to start staving money and we really just started learning, talking with the bank and listening to more of the podcasts and stuff like that and talking with realtors, looking at houses and then really just pushing. We didn\u2019t have a whole lot of money at the time, so we kind of felt like we were doing something that we shouldn\u2019t be doing, but we just really kept pushing until we got into that first property.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>No, you talked a little bit about not knowing exactly what you wanted to do with your life, which is a super common feeling for a lot of people. I know Ash went to school for one thing, she\u2019s doing something different. I switched my majors during my junior year of college, so I think everyone kind goes through that phase. But I guess once you were done with high school, what did you put yourself into from a work position? How did you decide how to spend your time, I guess?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So yeah, out of high school, towards the end of high school, I was really money-motivated and I wanted to find somewhere where I could be just making more money and that led me to just hop on the internet and Google what\u2019s the highest paying job for somebody that doesn\u2019t have any experience and is under 18. And the first thing that popped up was concrete laborer. And I\u2019m like, no emotion. I just didn\u2019t think about it or anything. I googled concrete companies in Dubuque and I just started calling everybody asking if they had a spot open or if they could hire a kid like me. And the first few were like, you could come and sweep the shop once or twice a week for 10 bucks an hour or something. They really didn\u2019t want to put me on because I was not old enough to operate equipment and stuff like that yet. And then the third one I called, I think they just looked right past it and were like, \u201cBe here at 5:00 AM tomorrow morning and you got a job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Nowhere.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>I feel like that would happen today because I\u2019ve been waiting for concrete to get poured forever, but my contractor keeps having trouble finding people he can\u2019t get jobs done fast enough because he needs laborers. But what timeframe was this? How long ago was this when this happened?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So I was probably a junior in high school, so it was like a year before I ended up graduating and was \u2026 I think I started in the summer in between two years and that\u2019s how I was able to be there at 5:00 AM the next day.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>I just want to pause here for a second though because I think there\u2019s a lesson for our rookies that are listening. So even though 99% of our audience is probably not a junior in high school, I think the lesson that we can take away from this is that A, if you want to find some skills that are relevant to being a real estate investor, just pick up the phone and start calling people. That\u2019s a super just gritty way to get that job experience. But B, it\u2019s like you can use this work experience to fuel your ambitions of being a real estate investor. There are a lot of people right now who aren\u2019t in love with their day job. And if that\u2019s the case and you\u2019re not in a position to go into your real estate business full time, then why not transition into a line of work that will set you up to be a better real estate investor?<br \/>And that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean becoming an agent. It\u2019s like if you could pick up skills like concrete work \u2026 I guess no, did you do any other work that was related to real estate investing that kind of helps you build that confidence?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So yeah, over the years since then I\u2019ve worked in a few different construction trades, which really kind of hammered out the hard work aspect. But after the construction stuff, I ended up getting into some sales spots, which was really awesome. I kind of got the hard work thing figured out and then I wanted more out of life I guess, and seeing some of my friends with their more cleaner jobs, they didn\u2019t have to get their hands dirty and I kind of wanted to get into that a little bit and started getting into \u2026 Well, I actually ended up getting my health insurance license and started working for a supplemental health insurance company, which we were selling supplemental health products door to door on the road. So I was basically on the road staying in hotels Monday through Thursday and I would be knocking on doors. And that kind of piled on top of the hard work, allowed me to get a lot better at that face-to-face interaction and talking with people and dealing with people. And now \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>I bet there\u2019s a lot of investors listening right now and be like, Hey, you want to come source deals for me. You already have that-<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>That\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m thinking right now.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>[inaudible 00:09:35].<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Yeah, exactly what I\u2019m thinking right now. But I think Noah, you got into the point that I was making is that you did these different things, you took these different jobs obviously with the intention of putting food on the table, but also with this idea of like, okay, can these skills support me in this bigger vision? And the point that I was making earlier was that if you\u2019re in a job right now that you don\u2019t like, why not try and find a slightly different career path, still a day job, still a W2 job, but one that\u2019s going to support you in being a better real estate investor. Can you go work for, like you said, a roofing company? Can you go work for your local HVAC company? Can you go work for, I don\u2019t know, a flipper who needs help managing their projects or sourcing their deals? I would assume, Noah, that between all these different jobs you kind of took, some of those skills transferred over, some of the lessons you learned on those jobs transferred over. If you think back, what are some of those moments for you?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So the wildest part about that is it kind of ended up giving me the skills I need, but I mean really during the time, I had no idea I was gaining those skills. I was really just ending up in these positions where I was chasing the money and then I was handed these things that I had to get over, getting over, knocking on the door, getting over a little bit of sweat and pain while at work. And over time, it\u2019s crazy how it\u2019s kind of all come together. And it definitely wasn\u2019t planned by any means, but when I was handed those things that were probably a little difficult, I just kind of kept running at them and kept my head down and just kept doing what I thought I should do. And then when you finally kind of look up, you\u2019ve gotten over those things that were once scary to you.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So, Noah, is there a certain principle that you live by that you follow is kind of how you lead your life?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, Ashley, that\u2019s a great question. After the concrete or in-between kind of some of that, I ended up working on a roofing construction job site and that was just a whole other ball game. In terms of hard work. I like to say when you\u2019re doing concrete, you\u2019re kind of lower. When you\u2019re on the roof, you\u2019re a lot closer to the sun, so it\u2019s a little hotter up there. But totally different ballpark when it comes to the labor. I ended up working for my fiance\u2019s mother\u2019s boyfriend. He had ran this roofing company for a while, small company, just one crew. And basically he would pick up a few guys from jail every morning on work release. And it was basically me, him, two other guys that were probably facing some wild sentence and just had a little bit of time between now and their court date to work. And we would go around in rural Wisconsin actually and do these roofs.<br \/>And I really picked that up easily because I had done the concrete in the past, so I fit right in there and over time he would have these people coming and going. And eventually, one day this mom actually dropped off her son, he looked a little bit too young to be working with us, and I\u2019m up on the roof working and the boss kind of yells down to this kid, the kid that probably shouldn\u2019t have been there, and he starts yelling at him to pick up the shingles because stripping the shingles off the roof and this pile, it\u2019s probably five or six foot tall, it\u2019s like a huge pile of shingles. I\u2019m just working away. And eventually, I\u2019m just kind of wondering, it\u2019s not being picked up. I look down the kid\u2019s crying, he\u2019s sitting there just kind of bawling his eyes out. And I look over at Ben and I\u2019m just like, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d And he looks at me and he\u2019s just like, \u201cNoah, if you look at something you\u2019ve never done in your life, it just is going to play games with your head. It just messes with your head.\u201d<br \/>And he sent me down the ladder to go pick up that pile of shingles. And I kind of had a little bit of pride because he called me in to go do the job or whatever, and I climbed down the ladder and just start picking up those shingles as fast as I can like I always did, and the pile was gone in 10 minutes. If you just focus on it for a little bit and kind of ignore the big giant thing, it disappears. And it really, really kind of set into me that no matter what it is, if you come across something that\u2019s just like making your mind spin, it\u2019s probably just your mind playing games with you.<br \/>So you take that and apply it to a fixer-upper house, you get into this project that you probably thought you had no business in, and if you just do it one shingle at a time is kind of what I taught myself, pick it up one at a time, do the thing that you know can do and do your best at it eventually, on a rehab, it\u2019s a list of items. That pile of shingles, it\u2019s a pile of shingles, so you could connect it to one shingle is one item off that list. And over time, if you keep picking up shingles, keep crossing items off those lists, eventually you\u2019re going to run out of shingles to pick up and you\u2019re going to run out of things to do on that list and that\u2019s when the deal\u2019s going to be done and you can go to the bank and refinance it.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So, Noah was your first property, did you have to do a rehab for it?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, so the first property we bought, I had a little bit of experience in construction, but I had really no experience in renovating a house. So we had done new construction mostly. And it sounds like those skills should be directly transferable, but I was pretty lost when I got into the first project.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Well, it seems like you did specialty skills too instead of general contractor. You had worked in the specialties. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah. No, the first project we bought from my parents\u2019 basement, we can go back to there, single-family fixer upper house, not really \u2026 It was on the MLS, but it probably shouldn\u2019t have been a wholesaler had gotten ahold of it through a lady that was behind on her taxes and he just basically took the old MLS pictures and listed it. He never even visited the property, he just put it on the market. And I circled past it four or five times and eventually, it was like, this looks like it\u2019s probably something that we could try. And the big problem with it was the sewage pipe was cracked, so the bank didn\u2019t want to finance it, just resident-<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>And did you know that ahead of time? Did the wholesaler tell you that or that\u2019s something you found out during an inspection?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So yeah, I mean the pipe was visibly cracked in the basement. So during the walkthrough, I could see the crack and I kind of just was emotional probably about it and was like, \u201cOH, I can fix that,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ll get that fixed, it\u2019ll be easy.\u201d And we just really kept pushing. But when the inspection came back or the appraisal came back for the bank, they classified it as C5 or something like that. It\u2019s basically just out of the threshold to be resold on the secondary market for a mortgage or whatever.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Let\u2019s talk about that real quick. So when you go and do bank financing, you have the inspection period from if you\u2019re doing an FHA loan or maybe a construction loan, something like that. But if you\u2019re doing just a conventional loan product, there isn\u2019t really typically any kind of inspection. So what you\u2019re talking about was done from the appraisal. So when the appraiser actually comes to the property, he\u2019s classifying it, and that\u2019s how the bank is deciding if they\u2019re actually going to loan on the product too. So kind of talk about that process. Did you expect that that could even happen, that the bank wouldn\u2019t loan on the property? And what loan product were you using?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, so I really had no experience in this stuff, so I had really no idea what they were talking about when they came back to me with, we can\u2019t finance this, it\u2019s a C5. And the loan product we were using was just a standard residential owner-occupied loan. So in order to qualify and push it through, they really had to make sure that it was a livable residence. And we can kind of go into detail about how we got around that.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Yeah, yeah, let\u2019s do that.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>I just want to call out one thing, Noah, because you said that the loan couldn\u2019t get resold on the secondary market. Can you just explain what that means for folks that aren\u2019t familiar with that?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So I\u2019m probably not the person to explain this, I\u2019m just repeating what they kind of told me, but \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>That\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, it\u2019s to my understanding that these smaller banking institutions and credit unions are basically just making these mortgages and they\u2019re selling them to larger institutions that use them as a vehicle to make an investor a return. So in order for them to be able to resell my mortgage, the risk has to be low enough for the investors that are on the other end of that deal to take it on.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Yeah, great description though. And yeah, like you said, most of these banks, usually when you get a mortgage, the person who sold you that mortgage, they might service it for a month and then you\u2019ll get a new loan servicer shortly there afterwards. So they\u2019re just kind of originating that loan and then selling it off to someone else. So yeah, a lot of these banks do have guidelines that aren\u2019t even necessarily their own banks, but it\u2019s like, hey, if we want to be able to resell this, whether it\u2019s a Fannie or a Freddie loan, there\u2019s certain boxes they have to check to be able to push that loan off to someone else. Now there are some-<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>I found it really common that if you use a mortgage broker that it\u2019s more likely to be resold than if you\u2019re actually going to a smaller bank that will kind of keep it in-house too. I\u2019ve had one loan that has changed four times. I got in 2017, and it\u2019s changed four times. Different loan service.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Just moving it around. But you made a good point, Ash. That\u2019s what I was going to comment on is that sometimes the smaller banks, they\u2019ll keep those loans in-house. Like the bank that I worked with in Shreveport when I first got started, they didn\u2019t resell any of their mortgages, they kept it in-house. So depends on which bank you\u2019re working with.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So knowing you couldn\u2019t get the financing and how did you end up getting around that?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So I was kind of told no. Really they basically just said, \u201cNo, we\u2019re not going to finance this. Keep looking, sorry.\u201d and I went to some of the investors from the local REI meetup that I attend and just asked them like, Hey, you told me to come to you when I had a question. I got a question. And I don\u2019t know how to get this pushed through. I really think the house is a great deal and I really think I can make it work, but the bank won\u2019t finance it.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Noah, did you put in any kind of earnest money when you got this property under contract that you were worried about losing if you didn\u2019t make this deal go through?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So I think it was like $500 in earnest money and earn. I wasn\u2019t really even thinking about losing it because I was going to make it go through. So it never crossed my mind.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Yeah, that\u2019s awesome mindset to have.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>But yeah, so my one friend ended up saying, well, what if you approached the bank and you said, here\u2019s a contractor\u2019s bid of all the items that need to be done to fix the house up to get it to a C4, so it\u2019s livable and stuff. And then what if you took that money and just gave it to them, put it in escrow account, and said, if I don\u2019t close on this house and fix these items to get it to a C4, you guys can take that money, execute it with this contractor and fix the house yourself. If I do fix it with my money and everything, you guys can just release those funds back to me.<br \/>So I went to the bank and asked them if they do that and they said, \u201cSure, yeah, get us the bid.\u201d And being in the profession I was in previously, I had a lot of friends that were contractors. So I just called up one of my better friends and went to his house and sat down at his dinner table and we wrote out this nice long bid that \u2026 We were able to make the bid a lot smaller because I\u2019ll say in quotations, \u201cI had a lot of the materials already.\u201d So we were able to make the bid look a lot smaller than it actually probably should have been that way I didn\u2019t have to set aside too much money because I didn\u2019t really have a lot of cash at the time.<br \/>So it was said and done. It was $900 to get it to be a C4. And I submitted the bid, the contractor\u2019s bid with the bank, and I honestly don\u2019t think they even looked at it. They said, okay, we\u2019re good. It\u2019s all good to go closing dates here. And that\u2019s when I was just like, whoa, this is crazy.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So that big takeaway right there, don\u2019t take no for an answer, find how to overcome that obstacle.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>But I think it\u2019s also, and Ash, we talk about this a lot too, it\u2019s just the flexibility you get when working with some of those smaller local banks. It\u2019s like I couldn\u2019t walk into Bank of America and offer that same deal and the teller would be like, yeah, I can make that work. But it\u2019s like when you go to a smaller local bank, you have that. So, Noah, what happens next? You figure out the whole financing piece with this really creative strategy, what happens from there?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So I would hate to gloss over this, but we actually ended up working seller credit into the deal and then the bank that we were working with offered a class to lower the, I think they call them the LLPAs. There were some little fees associated with the closing cost. So if I took this class, they would take $1,200 off or whatever. And then we got a $7,500 seller credit.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>And what was that class about? What did you actually learn in it that they would take those closing fees off?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>It was just a 30-minute online class about homeownership. So it was basically-<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>$1,200 for 30 minutes?<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>For 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Yeah. And it was still about owning a home and how to be responsible and make your mortgage payment?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Right. You got to have-<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>I got to-<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Go ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>No, I got to ask the question because I feel like every rookie listening to this is going to want to know what\u2019s the name of this bank that you were working with?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So this is Dupaco Credit Union, so they\u2019re Rock Stars.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Dupaco Credit Union. All right. Dupaco Credit Union just got put on the map by the Real Estate Rookie podcast. When I was a guest back on episode 10, I talked about the credit union that I used in Shreveport for my first deal, and I literally got a call a few days after my episode aired from the vice president of that bank. She was like, \u201cTony, I don\u2019t know what you did or what you said, but my phone has not stopped ringing all week.\u201d So there you go, man. We\u2019ll do the same for that credit union.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>That\u2019d be awesome.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So what happened next?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, we got the house closed. It was the wildest day probably of my life during the time. Just shortly before we ended up closing on the house, we went and got a small personal loan to kind of stock up our cash pile, and it was only like $3,000. And then when we ended up closing on the property, having no experience going into a closing, I didn\u2019t ask for a closing statement ahead of time or anything, or never really even got it. We didn\u2019t really know how much money we had to come up with until we were there the day before and they showed us that number and it was $3,200. And it was so eyeopening for me to have spent so much time renting and everything like that to just put that small amount of money down, which isn\u2019t getting thrown away anyways, it\u2019s going into that loan and it\u2019s a down payment and just have a mortgage payment the next month that\u2019s smaller than my old rent payment. But yeah, from there-<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>That\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>From my parents\u2019 basement, I was actually working as a motorcycle salesman at a Harley Davidson dealership, and I would get off at four or five o\u2019clock and come straight to this. I would actually change in the bathroom there and then come straight to this property to renovate every night. And it was probably a long slow process because I had no experience with doing the sequence of events properly and stuff like that. So I\u2019m bouncing around this house painting one wall and then painting the other wall and tearing some flooring out and just doing what I thought I had to do to get it up and running. And over a little bit of time, we kind of had it to the point where it wasn\u2019t moving ready, but I was at work one day and my fiance just got tired of living in my parents\u2019 basement and she just went around me and just started moving the stuff in and she\u2019s like, \u201cYeah, we\u2019re all moved in.\u201d<br \/>And I got off work that day and we were all moved in, At the time, we had only renovated the main floor of the house, so the top floor had still sat looking like how it\u2019s looked since probably the \u201960s. So we moved right into the lower unit and continued to work our W2s and continued to kind of learn about real estate.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Noah was that your plan is to push off moving in so that you didn\u2019t have to help move and that your girlfriend had to do it all?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Honestly, it was totally against my wishes. I had to caulk some trim yet, and I knew that if she started moving stuff in, that that stuff would never ever get done. And to this day, I\u2019m sitting in the unit right now and I can look around and the trim is not caulked and it kind of drives me nuts. And I bite her.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>That is so true though. I am sitting in the cabin that I remodeled and I was like, \u201cI\u2019ve got to get stuff in here.\u201d And so there are little things that are not done. The water isn\u2019t hooked up to the fridge for the ice maker. I feel like that\u2019s just never going to happen because the fridge is full of food, whatever little that \u2026 You are so right about that, once you move into the property, it\u2019s like how much stuff is actually going to get done, those little tiny things. So let\u2019s continue to talk about your real estate journey. So tell us about some of the other properties and experiences you have had as an investor.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So yeah, from there I kind of knew I liked fixing houses and stuff like that. I really didn\u2019t have a complete idea that it was what I was going to do. I had started attending the local REI meetup listening to more BiggerPockets podcasts, and eventually, one of the guys from the meetup kind of approached me and was like, \u201cI got this deal I\u2019m looking at, I really want to do it.\u201d Another guy from the meetup brought it to him and he was just kind of telling me about it and asking me if I thought he should do it. And I just responded with, \u201cI\u2019m in, I want to be a part of this.\u201d And it\u2019s just a totally gutted duplex, $30,000 purchase price, and the roof had just been done and the previous owner had gutted it and packed it full of materials for the rehab.<br \/>So we\u2019re looking at this really creative situation where we could potentially save a ton of money by using the materials that are already here and the purchase price worked out for the ARV, the after repair value. Basically, he approached me and he was going to do it himself. I told him I wanted to partner with him on it, which is kind of a little different how that went. But basically we kind of landed on him being the money and me being the labor. And I was kind of faced with this difficult decision. The only way that I was going to be able or be able to bring to the table what I needed to bring to the table was if I quit my W2 job and just went kind of full force into this deal to kind of get it done.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>I was just going to say, Tony and I love talking about partnerships, so we definitely want to dive into that partnership. But before we go further into this partnership and what happened with this property as to what strategy are you turning these properties into? So your first house hack and then this one, are you doing short-term? Are you doing long-term rentals, midterm rentals?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>At the time, the short-term rental thing had never even crossed my mind, so it was entirely just going to be a long-term rental thing.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So with the first property, your house hacking, you turned that into a short-term rental?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>I started the second deal in the middle of renovations at this project, so we renovated the main floor, moved into it, and I had every intention to renovate the top floor until this friend of mine approached me with that next deal and asked, we kind of worked out the situation where I\u2019d get half of the equity if I was the labor end of the deal, and then he brought the money or erased the capital. And I didn\u2019t have to worry about any of the money. I was able to buy the materials I needed to do the rehab throughout the whole process, and that was his deal. And then, yeah, it\u2019s a long four months of me. At the time I had a 1991 rusted-out S10 single-cab five-speed pickup that barely made it to the job site, and I had no tools. So I was actually borrowing tools from my money partner.<br \/>So he had tools because he was an HVAC technician, so he had all these regular tools that everybody really needs to do pretty much anything. And he loaned those out to me in a book bag. And basically, I had a few battery chargers and a book bag and a little tool bag that I would carry from my house to my truck bed to the job site. And then at the end of the day, I\u2019d have to load all that back into my truck and then drive it all home. And took me four months. I was the only one that really worked on the project. We had licensed subs for the plumbing and electric, and throughout the process, it\u2019s pretty funny, there was a auto shop right across the street from this property. And one of the days my truck didn\u2019t start when I went to leave, so I actually went over to the auto shop, got some help, pushed it across the street and walked home. And got a ride to the job site the next day, worked all day and then went and paid for my truck bill and drove the truck home.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So while you\u2019re doing this, this is where you also finish up the project at your house hack too. And so what made you decide to turn that into a short-term rental, and how did that kind of end up the numbers?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>The house hack project was still \u2026 the second floor was still just sitting pretty disgusting. And we ended up wrapping up the duplex with the money partner. And we had it all lined up with the bank from the get-go. So we basically told them, here\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do. Here\u2019s what we\u2019re going to come to you and try to refinance or finance because we did it all in cash, and then here\u2019s the timeline. So since we did that ahead of time, it just worked out so magically. We hit the nail right on the head in terms of the timeline. Reached out to the bank, said, Hey, we need an appraisal. This place is all done and leases are signed and everything. And they triggered the appraisal. Two weeks later, the appraisal comes back at 130,000, which is a little bit beyond our expectations. We cashed out like 26 grand and split it.<br \/>And that at the time was the biggest payday I\u2019d ever experienced in my entire life. So it was really mind-boggling and life-changing, and that\u2019s kind of when I realized that I did that. And sure, $12,000 in four months might not seem like a lot to other people, but to me at the time, it was incredible. I walked away with a turnkey duplex that was cash flowing, close to a thousand dollars a month. And then, yeah, I got the $12,000 paycheck. I basically was like, \u201cYeah, this is definitely what I\u2019m doing for the rest of my life.\u201d So I took that 12K and now we\u2019re indemnified or we have a bunch of money in our bank account. And that\u2019s when I dove into the upper unit here and really just started renovating. There was kind of this mother-in-Law Kitchen up there. So that\u2019s what really gave us the idea to put the kitchen back and kind of make it a second apartment. And there had already been a deck on the backside with a set of steps that went down. So we ended up-<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>You had your entrance so that they didn\u2019t have to go the same way as you?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah. Yeah. And then it\u2019s crazy. We had the big idea to make it a duplex. We thought, okay, it already is a duplex, but we ended up redoing all that stuff anyways, so I mean, basically all the plumbing, all the electric, we had to rebuild the deck and put a new door in and everything. And then we got that done. Actually, it was pretty interesting timing. I ended up going to the BP Con 2021 and I actually got a picture with you there, Tony, which was super cool.<br \/>You really inspired me. I was in the middle of renovating the unit. I think I had the idea to turn it into a long-term rental. And then BP Con in 2021 happened right before I was able to finish that unit. And I think you said, I don\u2019t know, something about getting to X amount of short-term rentals in two years. And I was just like, \u201cWhat if you can get to that? I can get to 10.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>I love this story right now. This is amazing. So that\u2019s what you did.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>But yeah, no, it really inspired me. And if I think back on it, I mean, I was so excited to just get home and turn this into the coolest Airbnb ever and list it.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So did it work or did it ended up being a bad or good?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Got home, went crazy, got super creative with the furniture and decoration budget and ended up listing it. I think the first month it did like 2,500 bucks in gross income.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>And how much did you pay for this house again, and you were all, and with your rehab costs, everything, what was the total amount?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So it was $107,000 purchase price.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>That\u2019s insane.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>1800 square foot, single-family house with one car garage, and it had two HVAC systems before I got into it. So two furnaces, two ACs, two thermostats.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>What\u2019s your mortgage payment on that?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>I think it\u2019s like 600 and something.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>No way.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>[inaudible 00:38:12]. Amazing.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>And that is insane.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>And then one of those three-point something interest rates.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Yeah. No, dude. First, I appreciate that story, man. And I had no idea that our interaction had that impact on you, brother, but kudos to you man, for taking the action because Ash and I talk with tons of people at BP Con, and I can guarantee that the majority, unfortunately, probably don\u2019t take action on what happens and what\u2019s said there, but the fact that you came back home on fire pays dividends, man, 2,500 bucks on a $600 mortgage. Crazy. Crazy. Good man.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>And let me ask you this, is there any kind of attraction near you? Why is your short-term rental doing so good?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>At the time there hadn\u2019t been any in this area and really kind of asking. A lot of my friends, they were really like, \u201cYou\u2019re crazy for that.\u201d But just seeing kind of in bigger markets how they\u2019ve been more successful and seeing other hosts like yourself have success, I was really willing to take the leap and have faith in the platform and the amount of people that actually visit that platform. There\u2019s probably not a lot of tourist things for people to visit this city, but everybody wants \u2026 people have family and families get married and have birthdays, and they do all these things and everybody \u2026 I have this belief that if you don\u2019t stay in Airbnbs, you just need to learn that you probably want to stay at Airbnbs or short-term rentals.<br \/>So over time, I just think more and more people will be converting from that hotel mindset to just the short-term rental mindset. And that\u2019s pretty much kind of what I was focused on capitalizing on, was just people moving and wanting a better way to stay when they move around.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Well, that\u2019s exactly to my short-term rentals. There is no attraction. There\u2019s a ski resort maybe 30 minutes away. Niagara Falls is like an hour away, but there\u2019s nothing centrally located right there. But the majority of our guests are coming for a wedding. We had grandparents stay for two months because they were visiting their grandkids for the summer, coming for the all-class reunion. A lot of it is just, there\u2019s one tiny little rinky-dink hotel that has awful reviews, and there\u2019s maybe three or four other short-term rentals, and some of them are just a bedroom or they\u2019re not updated at all. So that\u2019s just another opportunity there, just like you had Noah as to, there\u2019s not a ton of options, and you can capitalize on that.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>We do got the field of dreams.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Oh really?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>That\u2019s like a half.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Oh, cool. Yeah, that\u2019s an attraction for sure.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>I don\u2019t know what that is. I\u2019m sorry. No, educate me. What\u2019s the field of dreams?<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Tony doesn\u2019t know movies.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So it\u2019s a movie, a baseball movie that was shot really close to Dubuque in a city called Dyersville. And it was, I don\u2019t know the exact year they released the movie, but it was before I think I was bored. And throughout my entire life, the place has been not that popular. And then just in the last few years, they started really dumping a lot of money into it and hosting Cubs games and all these games. And now I think even our city spends money on that whole operation because they bring people into Dubuque too, just because of all the \u2026 It\u2019s really blowing up out there. I haven\u2019t been out there to visit since they\u2019ve kind of blown up. But yeah, I want to get out there.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>But it just goes to show, and this is something that I\u2019ve been talking a lot about, is that I think the next shift in the short-term rental space is going after some of these kind of secondary and tertiary markets that maybe wouldn\u2019t be your first guest at is like, Hey, here\u2019s a good place to set up a short-term rental. So it seems like Dubuque could be one of those places, man. So you\u2019re going to have people coming into Dubuque setting up short-term rentals and then going into that credit union that you talked about, man. So you\u2019re building some of your own competition right now.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Okay. So, Noah, let\u2019s kind of wrap up here with the rest of your portfolio. So you did the short-term rental, the second one that you did with your partnership, did that end up being short-term rental too?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So that ended up just being a long-term rental.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Oh yeah, the flip, I\u2019m sorry. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a flip. And then what have you done since then?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Basically got the Airbnb going upstairs at the place that I live at, and then we had that place totally wrapped up in terms of renovations. So we were looking to refinance it and pull out some of that equity. So we went to the bank and told them we were ready to try to do a refi. And actually, it\u2019s a funny story. Basically, the bank that we were banking at seeing us, they see two kids that are 20 years old at the time or 21, and they said, \u201cThere\u2019s no way in that short amount of time that you improve the value this much.\u201d And we said we wanted or said that we guessed it would appraise around $170,000. And I don\u2019t know if anybody\u2019s ever dealt with this, but I\u2019ve never even heard of it. The bank, they didn\u2019t necessarily say no, but they were just like, \u201cIt\u2019s not going to appraise for that,\u201d just over email, which being not that experienced was kind of like, okay. They said no. When we refinanced the second property, we did it with a different bank.<br \/>So at the time, I\u2019m banking with two banks, I just went over to the other bank and said, Hey, this first place won\u2019t refinance my loan. I think it\u2019s worth $170,000. Would you guys like to refinance this project? They\u2019re like, \u201cSweet, we\u2019ll send an appraiser out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>I think what\u2019s even crazy there though is that the first bank didn\u2019t even want to send an appraisal to get the appraisal done because I mean, that\u2019s business for the bank. At a minimum, they want to at least validate that, but now you just took your business somewhere else and was able to get what you needed there.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>For me, it was just confusing because it\u2019s like I pay for the appraisal anyways. So moving forward, I only work with banks and people who are oriented like that. Okay, let\u2019s not get emotional about it. Let\u2019s just do the thing that we need to do. So anyways, this second bank sends the appraiser out and appraisal comes back at 190,000, which was a good amount more than what we anticipated on.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Did you go back to that first bank and say, I told you so?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>No, no, but it\u2019s funny because over time-<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>I just would\u2019ve emailed them the appraisal with no subject line, no nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>That\u2019s kind of funny because over time, I\u2019ve actually ended up working back with that original bank for the last few projects, so. Yeah, anyways, we were able to cash out a lot more than we expected we would, which was another one of those moments where it really set into me that this is what I love to do and this is what I\u2019m going to do. And it\u2019s up to this point, it had given me more freedom than anything in my life, and although it had probably been harder than anything in my life, I felt compensated.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>So, Noah, to end this here, what is some advice that you can give our listeners as far as maybe three things that they should be doing today to manage a rehab project or anything to do with the rehab? What do you think are the three most important things an investor should be doing today to make it a successful rehab?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So number one, in my opinion, it has to be taking action. A lot of the time we want to sit on the sidelines or procrastinate. We might not even know we\u2019re procrastinating just because we think we can\u2019t do that laborious thing. I come across it so much where some of my investor friends are like, well, I have to wait to get this done because the grass needs to be mowed or something. And it\u2019s like, just go do it. And especially when you\u2019re trying to get started and you\u2019re starting from not a lot of capital, even if it\u2019s not your thing or you\u2019re not good at it, it\u2019s probably a little counterintuitive to a lot of the advice given out on the show, but I mean, a lot of the times you just have to go do it and get it done and then hope that someday that you\u2019ll be able to pay people to do that monotonous task.<br \/>Another one would be, and I always told myself if I was ever asked this question by you guys, I would say this, you got to listen to this podcast. I mean, you got to consume as much information as you possibly can consume, especially when it\u2019s free. In today\u2019s day and age, there\u2019s not a lot of people out there that are given out handouts, and I really feel like this platform, this podcast gives out a lot of handouts, and you got to take them when they\u2019re given out. And the third one would be those phone calls are going to come in and everybody knows what I\u2019m talking about, and they have their own version of whatever that phone call is. You got to stay positive when you get the bad news, you have to, and there\u2019s going to be days where you want to sell it all, and it\u2019ll be gone in a short amount of time if you just stay positive. So just keep in mind that in a short amount of time, I\u2019ll be laughing that I wanted to sell everything.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Yeah, I feel the same way, is there are those difficult phone calls that you can get? And one thing I\u2019ve learned is, okay, every rehab is baking in that extra 20% of overages, and I am expecting to spend that amount. So when something does happen or something comes up, it\u2019s like, okay, yep, here\u2019s the money, I have it set aside. This is what this money is for, because money can fix a lot of problems. So if you have your reserves in place, that makes me feel a lot better and I sleep better at night. And also I don\u2019t get myself so worked up and emotional about, oh my God, why is this happening to me and want to sell everything? So that\u2019s been a big help for me. And then if those things don\u2019t happen, like, yay, I went $10,000 under budget. Yay, this is awesome. So that\u2019s helped me a lot is having that money as set aside and having in my mindset that that money is to be spent on those things.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, so another few great lessons I learned during that time was one of the projects I closed on was right in the middle of the coldest part of the year in this part of the country. And it was a really valuable lesson where I thought, I can tough this out, but it was probably -20 the day I closed, and I had a long rehab ahead of me that we had no heat and the house actually had no windows and no electric at the time. So there was a lot of days where basically I really had no choice but to stay moving.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Had layer up. I did a rehab on a four-unit, and I mean, it was probably 20 degrees out. It was cold, but not that cold at all. And I\u2019m still in full Carhartt gear. I can\u2019t imagine below 20 degrees. Oh, my gosh.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>My brain can\u2019t even comprehend what negative 20 feels like. And I\u2019m saying this as I\u2019m sitting on the beach in California watching the waves crash.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So it probably wasn\u2019t actually that cold, but it felt like it was that cold. This was probably right around zero.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Yeah, with the wind chill and everything, I\u2019m sure. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, yeah. No one day during that rehab, I\u2019m just trying my hardest to get this project done and a little bit out of my comfort zone in terms of the level of rehab, and I was really trying to work as fast as I possibly could. I ended up breaking a window and a bathtub in the same day on one of those really, really cold days. And I am not going to lie, I sat down and I cried. I just curled up in a ball because I was cold. And the cool part about that cold is you can only sit down for so long. So I really kind of had to just get up and continue to move around. And that made me get up, push that window out, tear that tub out, and that night, I was able to get up and kind of get that stuff actually replaced before I went home. And I ended up going home probably at 10:00 PM that night, but kept me moving, kept me positive.<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>I appreciate the transparency, brother. And you mentioned something I just want to highlight before we kind of wrap up here, but you talked about being a little bit outside of your comfort zone, and I think it\u2019s a really important concept for our Ricky\u2019s to understand is that all of us have some comfort zone that we live within, and the dangerous part is when we only stick with inside of that comfort zone. Now, you also don\u2019t want to go too far out where you\u2019re maybe overextending yourself to the point where it\u2019s reckless, right? Or you\u2019re kind of in that danger zone putting on too much to your plate, but just outside of your comfort zone is a growth zone. And that\u2019s where you kind of want to try and focus, and that\u2019s where you find growth and that\u2019s where you get better, and that\u2019s where you find success and that\u2019s where you find just building new skills and all the things that are required to be successful.<br \/>So if you\u2019re listening to this podcast and you feel like you haven\u2019t stretched outside of your comfort zone in a while, it\u2019s a sign that you might be stagnating a little bit. So appreciate you sharing that, Noah. Now I want to take us to our rookie request line before we let you go. If you guys are listening and you want to get your question featured on the podcast, head over to biggerpockets.com\/reply and we just might use your question for the show.<br \/>So today\u2019s question comes from Steven Rutherford, and Steven\u2019s question is, for a proper bird, you have to buy the house 100% cash and pay 100% cash for the rehab and then do the refi, or can you do 20% down for the house and pay all cash for the rehab and then do a refi? So, Noah, what\u2019s been your experience?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>So I actually read David Greene\u2019s BRRRR book pretty early on, and I\u2019m not going to lie, it kind of rubbed me wrong when he was really totting that the best way to do a BRRRR is to come up with all the cash ahead of time and do it that way and then finance it. Now, this might be just because I\u2019m dealing with smaller banking institutions and credit unions, but I have never ran into any sort of issues with seasoning periods. So I see a lot more performance or success and putting the 20% down financing the house originally and then going back and refinancing it, that allows you to, instead of having to come up with all the cash for a hundred percent of the purchase price, you can maybe save the cash that you have and spend that on the rehab and then put 20% down and then the project\u2019s probably going to take three to six months anyways if you\u2019re a rookie.<br \/>So as long as you kind of chat that out with a bank beforehand and they know your intentions and you don\u2019t work with a bank that won\u2019t refinance in that short period of time, I don\u2019t see why it\u2019s not a better way to-<\/p>\n<p>Tony:<br \/>Necessity.<br \/>And just to add to that, Noah, for everyone that\u2019s listening, you can use whatever kind of debt you want for a BRRRR. What\u2019s most important is that the spread between your purchase price and your rehab is big enough with your ARV. Even if you pay cash for a house, if you pay cash for a house and say you buy it and you\u2019re all in for $100,000 for your purchase and your rehab, but the house is only going to appraise for $80,000, that\u2019s still a failed BRRRR, right? But say that you use all debt and you\u2019re only in for 40,000 and the house appraises for a hundred thousand, then you\u2019ve got a decent spread there. So what\u2019s most important is the spread and can you get your perch in the rehab done at a certain number.<br \/>Just one thing I want to clarify really quickly, Noah, you mentioned seasoning period. And I don\u2019t think all of our rookies know what that is, but I\u2019d say most of the banks that I work with, even the smaller ones, required some sort of seasoning. So basically what this is that when you purchase a home, typically, banks want to see that you\u2019ve owned that property for at least six months before they\u2019ll allow you to do a cash-out refinance. A lot of times you can just do a refinance where you\u2019re changing the rate and not pulling any cash out. But if you want to do where you\u2019re pulling equity out of your property, typically, they want to see six months. But Noah, you\u2019re saying that some of these smaller banks that you\u2019re working with, they don\u2019t even hold you to that six month standard?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, no, I\u2019ve been pretty fortunate to been able to get in and out of a project where I financed it and then refinanced it within even four months. And the banker might say something about, that\u2019s crazy, or you approved the value that much, and that\u2019s when you can just fire back at him the list of items that are completed and maybe some before and after pictures and say, if you don\u2019t want to refinance it, maybe I can take a walk down the street. They might want to. This is worth a lot more money now. But yeah, I don\u2019t know. I kind of over time, and this might change, but I\u2019ve always told myself the best bank is probably the next bank, and that\u2019s kind of how I\u2019ve been treated. The next bank always wants to win your business and get you over there. So worst-case scenario.<br \/>Like Tony said, I could piggyback off that a little bit. As long as your margins are there, it really doesn\u2019t matter how you finance it or buy it and everything like that, as long as you have a great deal on your hands, you should be able to either A, borrow money to take that thing down or B, get the money from the bank or whatever. And if for whatever reason you\u2019re kind of running into walls when it comes to that, your deal probably isn\u2019t making the returns it probably should, and you might need to go back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Yeah, it\u2019s like the example, a lot of people do this with interest rates too. Like, oh, I\u2019m not going to buy property, I don\u2019t want to pay hard money, 12% interest. Well, if you have no other way to buy the property, isn\u2019t it better to make $25,000 than nothing and making something off of it if can the deal still works? But if you\u2019re like, Nope, I\u2019m only going to do it if I get 30, but this interest rate is only going to make me 25,000. If this is your first deal and you are going to make some money instead of nothing and it\u2019s still worthwhile, what doesn\u2019t matter what interest rate you\u2019re making, if you\u2019re making what you want to make.<br \/>Well, Noah, thank you so much for taking the time today to come on the podcast. We really appreciated you sharing your journey and your story with us and giving us lots of advice. Can you let everyone know where they can reach out to you and find out some more information about you?<\/p>\n<p>Noah:<br \/>Yeah, so I\u2019m most active probably on Instagram at NoahSprimont. That\u2019s N-O-A-H-S-P-R-I-M-O-N-T, no spaces. And then you can find me on Facebook and stuff like that. And yeah, if you ever have any questions about what we do, we are completely transparent even with all of our numbers and stuff, and we love to provide value in any way or shape or form that we can. So yeah, please feel free to ask, and yeah, I would love to chat.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley:<br \/>Awesome, Noah, thank you so much. I\u2019m Ashley at Wealth from Rentals and he\u2019s Tony at Tony J. Robinson, and we will be back on Saturday with a rookie reply.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/forums\/25\/topics\/161423-do-you-listen-to-the-bp-podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>. Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n<p><em>Interested in learning more about today\u2019s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#ec8d889a899e98859f89ac8e858b8b899e9c838f8789989fc28f8381\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><span class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"2a4b4e5c4f585e43594f6a48434d4d4f585a4549414f5e5904494547\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/rookie-327\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In just a few years, you can go from no cash flow or investing experience to owning a sizable real estate portfolio, with passive income flowing in and free rent, EVEN if you\u2019re in your early to mid twenties. Not possible? Today\u2019s guest would beg to differ. Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! 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