EP96 From Immigrant Nurse to Real Estate Investor with Wealth Builder Lindsay Barrientos

Lindsay Barrientos shares her journey from Peruvian immigrant to real estate investor, showing how regular people can build wealth through property investment even without massive capital or experience. Her story proves that our community can overcome financial barriers and cultural money mindsets to create passive income streams and build generational wealth.

• Born in Peru and immigrated at 16, learning English and American financial systems simultaneously 
• Used nursing career to build initial capital while educating herself through books and social media
• Purchased first investment property in Indiana for $135K while living in California
• Successfully executed a BRRRR strategy using HELOC funds despite setbacks including a property fire
• Emphasizes networking with other investors and learning from YouTube creators investing in target markets
• Advocates shifting perspectives on debt to understand the difference between good debt for assets versus bad debt for liabilities

Find Lindsay on YouTube and Instagram at "LINdoes investing" to follow her journey and learn more about real estate investing strategies for Latinas.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Lindsay's Immigration Story
• 4:59 Early Financial Lessons & Discovery
• 10:33 Navigating Career Burnout During Pandemic
• 16:30 Finding Out-of-State Investment Markets
• 25:22 The BRRRR Strategy & Surviving a Fire
• 40:06 Leveraging Debt & Growing Your Portfolio
• 44:36 Changing Your Mindset About Good Debt

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:48

Real estate investing is one of my big passions, but I always find that in our community it's kind of intimidating and we don't see ourselves as real estate investors. So today I have with me Lindsay Barrientos to share her journey and hopefully inspire others and make real estate investing feel more achievable by seeing hey, we're out here doing it. So hola, lindsay, thank you so much for being here today.

Speaker 2: 1:19

Hi Violeta, how are you? Thank you for inviting me on your podcast. I'm glad that you have a platform for me to come on and share my journey.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Yeah, I'm excited because I think one of the things that I struggle with trying to get our community to, you know, get into real estate investing is that if it sounds hard, it feels like it's not achievable, and that's why I'm glad that I'm finding more people as I go through my own journey. I'm finding more of our community out here. So I that's my mission is to bring them on here, so to share their journey and make it seem like, hey, you know, like we're out here doing it like regular people it's. You know, you don't have to be like a super millionaire or whatever to be out here buying properties. So I'm excited to get into your journey.

Speaker 2: 2:08

Yeah, so I'm actually Peruvian. I was born and raised in Peru. I immigrated to the United States in 2008 with my parents. It's actually a crazy story. My dad won the lottery of visas, so he won a green card. Because we were underage there was no separation of families, so by default we also were awarded a green card. So I came here at the age of 16 with family, didn't know any English, was thrown into high school and had to learn it the hard way and ended up going to college. I became a nurse and I continued to support my family in many ways, because we only have a few years here in this country and there's a lot of challenges that come with that, like immigration and getting adjusted to the United States culture, history and financial things. I had to learn about credit scores and all of that, so that is where I come from.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Yeah, yeah, I can imagine that at 16, like I came at three, so like I had to like kind of really easy right, because I was little. So I can imagine like as a teenager, coming in here and having to learn a new language and seeing that like the differences from here and over there. You had to learn everything about finances kind of like on a whim. So what was your journey like?

Speaker 2: 3:42

yeah. So my parents well at least my mother since the beginning. We grew up very humble, very poor. We did.

Speaker 2: 3:51

We were always housed, but my parents weren't unemployed many times during when me growing up, so money was always like a topic that was around in the household, right like we knew exactly what everything costed, since I have a memory of everything like what milk costed, what x costed, what x costed, so I definitely knew how to budget, since I was like very, very little and when we came here, uh, the hold, we came here with like one bag, one roll carry on 16 pound bag, so we didn't really have anything and then if we wanted to buy things like chairs and beds and things, we had to like work for it.

Speaker 2: 4:38

So since I was very little, I seen my parents work really hard to earn money and their mentality, or like the mentality that I had, was like you work harder to make more money. When you work more hours, you stay over the time, you take another job, basically to just sustain your family, and there was no education passed of like, oh, this is how you become financially stable, or it was just saving, like saving, saving, saving. It wasn't like how do you leverage that, or how do you become financially independent?

Speaker 1: 5:13

there was none of that how did you start learning about, like, uh, managing money and you, you knew a little bit, so that was good, because you at least knew about budgeting, because I didn't like really budget anything, I just like paid everything and then it's like everything else was like, okay, I'm going to spend it. When I was younger. So at least you were ahead of me, yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:37

So very young I had to learn that, since I had no ways to sustain myself through college, I had to work through college. So very young, I knew, like what earning minimum wage was, like what earning minimum wage was. And so I always had the mentality of like, if I'm gonna have to work this hard, then I must save for a rainy day, because my parents were also working minimum wage. So when I started working, I started saving a lot of the money that I was making. And then I always have the mentality I was like, okay, well, we're going to go to college, we're going to get a career, and once we get a career, then I'm not going to struggle as much. And it was during one of the jobs that I was having as a nurse assistant that I learned that they were offering a 401k 401k, and so I didn't know what a 401k was and I, by default, my paycheck was collected like 4% away into my 401k.

Speaker 2: 6:43

By the time I graduated college, at the age of like 22, and I had my nursing degree, I realized that I had well, I have a few thousand dollars in this account that I didn't know. And so I went to community college because I could not afford a four-state university. So I got my rent and then so I realized oh, how did this money came out to be? I did not understand it at that time and I used the money I guess that's one of like one of the mistakes that I did early on at age 22, to pay for my bachelor's degree.

Speaker 2: 7:18

Yeah, because I did not want to take loans, because I was under the mentality that I cannot take out loans or didn't know much about that. So I funded my bachelor's with that 401k money, took the penalty, but it didn't really hit me that much because I wasn't really making that much money as a minimum wage person. So I was just like, okay, well, this money did give me my bachelor's degree. And then I was like I can do that again. I can build up the money again if I get a job that has another 401k. So, working as a nurse, I like started to see the possibility of like putting money aside, that it was giving me a tax break, a tax deduction at the end of the year. I was like okay well.

Speaker 2: 8:05

I'll just keep doing that. And then so it was not so much I have extra income, but I was already using the 401k as a tool which at the time I didn't know, I didn't know this was like for retirement you shouldn't be touching anything like that. So I did a lot of years like that. I did know that from the beginning I wanted to be a homeowner, because my parents stretched homeownership very hard and on us, and I also grew up quite very independent and very anti anti man, I guess in which, like, I wanted to be the homeowner, I wanted to be the one that drives my future and takes all of the financial questions and decisions. So I took it upon myself to use the money again for a 401k that I have been putting away years after years, because in my mind I was just like well, you know, the whole goal was to go to university, get your degree and start working. And I was like did that? So what do I want now? So that was like the goal for my parents for me, but not like what do I want? So I want to be a homeowner. Okay, I'm gonna use this money again for this 401k that I didn't know was supposed to be for my retirement to buy a house. So I that's what I did, and, uh, that would be one of the things that I guess the FIRE community didn't prepare me, because at the time I didn't know about the FIRE community, but I used that as a down payment for my home and I became a homeowner.

Speaker 2: 9:49

Then I realized I was about to turn 30. I realized I need to know more about financial security. Like I'm getting older, like what do I do when I need to be retired? Like is social security going to be even around? I didn't know that and I didn't know how much money I'm going to get. And now I'm a homeowner, so I have bigger bills. So I need to figure it out. And I was 29.

Speaker 2: 10:19

And then I started reading books about financial stability, about how to learn how to increase your money, make money smarter, investing, and I mentioned that earlier. I started following accounts on Instagram that people that were trying to do the same, I guess, and that's how I found WellParaTodos, the Latino people that were trying to figure it out, because nobody was telling us oh, put your money in a 401k or a Roth IRA or save for retirement because you're going to need it. Nobody was telling that in my regular environment, day to day. So I was like, okay, let me go on social media and then find out who's doing it or who knows more answers than I do. So I found Well, para Todos, and then she was going through her journey of like from debt to investing and I reached out to her and she sent me a book on a PDF called A Simple Path to Wealth. And I read the book in like two days and I was like, oh my God, I have to invest. I just emptied my 401k twice Like. You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to save for the future twice like, but you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to save for the future.

Speaker 2: 11:36

So I went into the deep, dark hole of the internet and I just like looked up every single thing that I could do in order for me to retire with some, some cash coming in, like some passive income coming in. So I started just following more accounts. I. I read way more books. I will teach you how to be rich. Poor dad, rich dad. All of these books and meanwhile the money that I kept making I was putting aside and retirement accounts I got a Roth.

Speaker 2: 12:06

IRA, a 401k. I learned those little steps. I was like okay, I'm good, and then a pandemic hit those little steps.

Speaker 1: 12:14

I was like, okay, I'm good, and then a pandemic hit. Yeah, I feel like we can't catch a break, like like we do things and then something happens. Like we go and get like the the job, or we get our school, school or education, and it's like something always happens. And you're like, for example, like our generation, like they got stuck with like student loans and so that set them behind, and then, like you just said, like now the pandemic.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Yeah, the pandemic hit and I did not mention. Maybe I didn't mention, but I'm a nurse, so I was hit very hard with the pandemic. I became very depressed because I saw a lot of people die day after day and I from I became from loving nursing to hating nursing, because it was just making my life. I would just, I could not bear it right Seeing that many people die, people like look like us, like my parents, brothers and sisters. So I said to myself what do I do? I don't know anything else, I only know nursing. I don't know how to make money otherwise.

Speaker 2: 13:24

So I was just like I need to find another plan. Retirement is so far out. Yes, I will continue to invest in my 401k, my Roth IRA and my brokerage account, but it would take like 20 years for me or 30 years for me to get to that point, and then meanwhile my mental health is deteriorating. So I decided we have plan A and plan B, which is plan A is go back to school, major in something else and start your career again, because that's all I knew, like I was a good student, so I knew how to study, so that was planning. Plan B was like I'm going to find something else that I can invest that can bring me more cashflow. So maybe I don't need to work as much. I don't need to work full-hour shifts five days a week. Maybe I need to work three or two or one.

Speaker 2: 14:21

So, I started looking up more books and I found real estate investing and I realized that me purchasing my home during the pandemic. The interest rates went down, house appreciated so much and I was like there's money here, there's something that I haven't tapped into it. So I started looking for people again on social media that were investing and I didn't find, honestly, anybody that looked like us like in 2020, 2021. And so I just started talking to people on YouTube or Instagram and I found a couple of investors. They're investing out of state. I live in Los Angeles, california, and the home prices here are astronomical. There's no way I can save a 20% down payment 20 to 25% down payment for a rental here. So I needed to do something else and that's how I ended up looking for out-of-state markets.

Speaker 1: 15:28

Yeah, that's what kind of stops a lot of people Cause right now I'm in San Diego, um, so California as well, and it's so expensive, so, and there's other markets where, um, the the house values are so high that it's like there's no way I could get 20, 25%, whatever it is that I need for an investment property, and people don't think to go out of state, and also, if they do, it's scary. So, like, how did like when you heard, like, OK, my only way to buy a property is to find one out of state? Like, what was your, your thoughts? Like, because I know I was scared at first. I was like it sounds very scary.

Speaker 2: 16:15

Yeah, initially I was very, very scared and I took a comparison to like what the market does. Right, when you invest in the market your day to day, or like even your year to year, you may be up 20% one day and then minus 20% the other day. You don't know, and that's scary, right.

Speaker 2: 16:37

That's something that when you buy a stock, it's not something like you can touch and feel, it's something that you just bought. And then somebody told you like yeah, you own the share. And I equated to like buying real estate. At least I'm buying something that I can touch and feel. That's something that's there, that's been there for years and because I don't think I can afford new construction, but that's been there for years and if everything fails, I can always sell. So but there there were.

Speaker 2: 17:09

There was a huge curve of education for me, since I only knew how to invest into the S&P 500, vtc, vtsax, like I only knew what stock investing was.

Speaker 2: 17:24

So I just poured myself more books and I started reading more about out-of-state investing. I I like looked up podcasts like the real estate rookie, bigger pockets, other things like that. So I learned what I needed to be focusing on, like what strategy I needed to be focusing on According to my risk tolerance. I found out how much cash and cash return I should be focusing on too, because if I'm investing in the stock market and I'm looking for at least a 7% return that's what I'm getting from the last 100 years, so we know that it will average too Then I need to make more than that 7%, because now that investing strategy was totally passive, like you said, I didn't forget it right. But with real estate now you're going to have to do work. You're going to have to learn how to analyze a deal, learn what your market average is bringing up and then learn what a good cash on cash return is, and then so you had all these factors.

Speaker 2: 18:34

so education is key. But there's also something called as analysis paralysis, in which you get so focused on what the numbers are going to be, or like the spreadsheets, or all the properties you analyze, and then you get like all the what ifs what if the roof casing?

Speaker 1: 18:54

What if?

Speaker 2: 18:54

the switch clogs up. What if all the bathrooms break down?

Speaker 1: 19:01

I think the main one is always like they're always scared that the tenant's not gonna pay us, like that's like the, the lesser one, because you're more than likely they're gonna have to repair something like the hvac it's always plumbing for me and I know it stops a lot of people because they're looking for the perfect. I think that's the other mentality too is that we want the perfect thing to invest our money, and with real estate, investing is not going to be perfect. The main thing is that you're doing like how you said, that you're beating the stock market.

Speaker 2: 19:35

Yeah, many books say many different things, but I do want to point out that you need to find out what you're comfortable with, because there's so many strategies with real estate. You can do short-term rentals, you can do mid-term rentals, you can buy a whole, you can flip, you can burn, you can so many things right. There's rent by the room now co-living, and all those things. For me, because it's very individualized for me, it's like I needed to invest in something that was more passive and that was going to be kind of off my hands. So I knew from the beginning that managing the rental was not something that I could do in my regular life and then also do my W-2. So from the get-go I was like I need a property manager, I need somebody to place the tenants, I need somebody to manage the tenants, I need somebody to renew the leases, collect the rent and everything. So I already narrowed down what I could do, because if you're paying a property manager, then you need to include that in your numbers. So the next step would be to pick a market. So for me I knew out of state right, because I could not afford here and then. So I wanted to be close to the out-of-state market in case that if I needed to let's say, worst case scenario fly in and fly out, then I could.

Speaker 2: 21:12

At that time, when I started looking at markets, I was looking at Florida. You know Ohio Everybody kept talking about Columbus, ohio or Cleveland Ohio, your pocket, yeah Ohio. Or Cleveland Ohio, your pocket ship, yeah. So but I was just like, okay, let me find out something that I can go and fly too quickly. At the time I was about to take a contract as a nursing contract in Chicago, illinois, and I said, okay, let me. It's 2022 at this time, like, let me go and house hack a house in Chicago, since I'm going to be a nurse there, I'm going to stay for a few months. I'm sure I can find another traveler nurse there and rent the other room too, but 2022, nobody was paying rent in Chicago because of the pandemic. So I realized that another thing about my restaurant is I need to be on a state that's going to be more landlord-friendly than.

Speaker 2: 22:07

Illinois, but something that was close to Illinois was Indiana and that's the market that eventually ended up in. I again went to social media, found creators YouTube especially that were investing already in the market that I was looking at in Indiana, and I reached out to them. I don't really have much shame about sending a message on YouTube and be like hi, my name is XoXo, this is my email, let me know if you can connect, or anything. And then, luckily to me, I found creators that were not as big, that had the time to like reply and talk to me. So I found at least two other people that were investing in the same area that I was looking at and at the time I was Heming Indiana and Gary Indiana. That is like 30 to 40 minutes away from downtown Chicago, so I was going to be there. I could drive back and forth to see the area, to like analyze the area, and so I found two men. Both of them were cops. One of them was in Florida, the other one was in Washington. They had a YouTube channel Millennial Mike and Muskie Finance. So, like again, I like reach out to them, out to them, ask them. Hey, I see your numbers, I see the content you're putting out there. I really like that you're being honest about your success and your failures. Um, how do you see this market becoming like, where? Like, would you mind talking to me via other email or phone or anything like that? And then they were very, very nice, very helpful. They were just like, yeah, this is what I'm doing, this is what the all I am on. This is my realtor, this is my property manager. So from the beginning I just felt like, oh, wow, I just sent a message to these people. The beginning I just felt like, oh, wow, these, I just sent a message to these people. And then they're giving me all of this data and all of these referrals that have been severely already used in the past. And I'm like, okay, I have like a shoe in in this market. Then now, so that a little bit ease my I guess my doubts of going out of state. And then the purchase price was my made it more cemented, I guess the idea of, like the first house I invested on was 135k in Hammond, indiana, which had 20% down would be something along the lines from 20 to $25,000. So in my mind I'm like, okay, I was scared, yes, but if anything goes badly, I can always sell the property Right.

Speaker 2: 24:54

At the time it was 2022, interest rates were going up. People were afraid of like buying, like I remember this thing when everybody else gets scared, you get greedy. When everybody else is greedy, you get scared. So I'm like, okay, everybody's getting scared. We don't know what the market is going for real estate. Let me test my toes with this and if it fails, I sell. If it doesn't pan out, then I know this is not the investment strategy for me and then I'll go back to the s&p 500, I'll go back to 401k investing, I will go, I'll go back to my passive, my passive life. So I did. I jumped in in in 2022. I found my lender. I already had referrals for realtors and property managers, so I just interviewed them and I found who I ended up with and that was my first deal.

Speaker 1: 25:54

I'm glad that you brought up, because a lot of people don't know where to start. But you found people on YouTube and that's another great resource that you can really just go on there and type the market that you might be interested in. There's people that are making YouTube videos. There's also, like most of the time, there's even like Facebook, groups of investors that are in that area as well that you could join, and a lot of times, most of them are going to be willing to help. Like you'll get like one or two snooty people that are, like you know, too booked or whatever, but most of the like the small, you know, the regular ones are more helpful and willing to help and share their resources. And that's one key thing is to network and get out there and just send out a message, just ask, because you never know who might say yes and then look at you Now you had bought your first property at that time.

Speaker 2: 26:59

Yeah, and I think it's very important to point out what you said network, and that's something that I've been learning in the last two years that it's so rewarding to network Like the people that you connect with that are doing basically the same thing that you're doing investing in real estate or investing in this, however you're investing. Yeah, investing in real estate or investing in this a few hundred, however you're investing. Yeah, the people, the community that you get by talking to everybody that's doing the same thing. It's just like what's gonna propel you into your journey for sure so that was your first one.

Speaker 1: 27:37

What happened after that, or what's next for you?

Speaker 2: 27:40

yeah, so that was that was in 2022. In 2023, I wanted to have proof of concept, so I left that property. I bought it, I got a property manager, I had it rented out For one year. I did not look at any other real estate. I also was in graduate school so I was quite busy, but I had a rental income coming every month for one year. I it was just smooth. So I was like I can do this again, I can buy another one.

Speaker 2: 28:15

So the next one, it was, uh, in the same same state, just a little bit further, in a city in which the purchase price was even lower. So I bought my second property. It was a two bedroom, one bath. It was listed for $65,000 and I got it for $55,000. And this is because the interest rates were so high at that point. Nobody was buying in 2023. I think my interest rate is like 7.5 on the house when I bought it. But that $55,000 house I could rent it out for $1,100.

Speaker 2: 28:53

So that was where, like, I felt very confident in going into this, into this market. So, yeah, from the get I was just like, oh, wow, this is just moving a little bit off. The city that I was investing initially brought me great return. So I ended up renting out the house. And after two houses I was just like I'm out of cash, I don't know what else to do. And then so I'm like, okay, let's go to Beaver Cuckold, let me see what else I can do without cash. So I learned the concept of leveraging debt. So in my primary in Los Angeles, my house had appreciated because I bought in 2019. And I realized that there was a lot of equity in my house that I could tap into. And so I opened up a HELOC last year and I learned what I could do with the HELOC, which is BRRRR, by Rehab, rent, refinance, repeat and by opening this new concept. I'm like like I don't know if I can do that because I don't know if I.

Speaker 2: 30:07

Now it's different. Right like now rehabbing a property. Now you have to talk to contractors. Now you have to invest in my estimate budget. Now you have to do all of these things. And again we're like, okay, well, if it fails, you can always sell the house. So I already had two houses income producing, and now I'm going into a different strategy. It's still real estate, but a different strategy. But in my mind I was just like, well, do it scare, let's see if it works out. Right now you have those income producing properties, so at the time you're not using technically your own money because I was using the HELOC money to do the property to rehab it. So it was way different than the first two, but it's hard and it takes a long time. It takes a long time because I haven't been lucky enough to find a bank that would cash out refinance sooner than six months. Yeah, so you have the.

Speaker 2: 31:14

When you buy something cash, which is I did, from a HELOC, I bought something cash because I needed repairs. They're not. That house, particularly, was not going to be approved for conventional financial or FHA, because they have their standards the house has to be livable. So I did not buy a livable house. I bought a rehab that was more extensive than that, and so I had to buy a cash. I bought a cash. This is a crazy story. I bought a cash, 35k cash. I bought it cash.

Speaker 2: 31:42

This is a crazy story. I bought it cash $35,000. And I knew I was going to put at least $33,000 into the rehab because at the time I had a house walked by contractors, I had budget for the rehab but I knew after all repairs were done then the house was going to appreciate for at least $85,000. It's like a brick house two, and want to buy it again, a small house. So I I was like, okay, I have enough to to pay myself back, to pay back my HELOC. And I I was just like, okay, let's go in, let's, let's figure it out, let's do it. So bought it, repair it, almost, uh, ready for rental.

Speaker 2: 32:29

Something happens there's a fire in the house. My first bird, yes, yes. So turns out it was an electrical fire, the light on top of the kitchen. It wasn't really big, but the fire department did come on. It was in the kitchen, the light over the kitchen. I guess the wiring was faulty over the light so that set up on fire which burned a little bit of the ceiling. It wasn't really bad, but the fire department did come because of the alarm. And then they came with the big, you know water hoses and everything, and it was the water damage that did like did a number on the house newly rehab house right, so like 35 am 33 rehab, so all together I was 68 in trying to cash out rehab.

Speaker 2: 33:25

But the fire happened. So I was just like let me not worry about the electrical. Nobody was in the house. Thankfully this was not rented yet. So that was that was. That was the. I guess the only good thing that it was empty the house was. The fire was not significant. The water damage, on the other hand, that was significant. But okay, the house is not longer on fire. So I was like, what is it going to cost me to rehab it again? So I didn't want to take any chances with the electrical, so I just rewired the whole house electrical. So I just rewire the whole house and I spent about 11,000 on top of my first rehab to get it um again.

Speaker 2: 34:11

Rental ready, so at this point I'm like, okay, well, I'm not gonna get all my money back, but let's say I leave 11,000 in the house, it's still. It's still okay for me because it's like I got a whole house for $11,000. Not even a car, it's $11,000. So I was like, okay, I just prepared myself mentally the mindset of like, okay, you're just going to have to leave money on the deal, that's fine, you're going to have to do that and move on.

Speaker 2: 34:40

Anyways, the house got rehabbed for a second time and, um, I went to the bank. I was like, give me a mortgage in this house. And the house actually appreciated for 150k. My estimation was 85 000, so it appreciated significantly more for what I thought. So immediately I'm like, okay, you need to work on your skills to estimate how much this is going to be. But anyways, it's a good turnaround that, even though I thought I went with the mindset of like I'm going to left money in this deal, I did not end up leaving money in the deal. I took off all of the money that I put into the house. But I just it was so hard having the house for six months, having to rehab it, waiting for, you know, a mortgage company to lend me in a cash out refi, having a high interest rate, because it's 2024, still high interest rates, and just all of that mindset. It was hard. I would say that birds are hard, they're not easy, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was pleasantly surprised after Prezo came in.

Speaker 1: 36:05

I was pleasantly surprised after Priso came in. That's one of my goals is to do a burp, but I don't have the time right now. So I think maybe in another year or so I'll be ready for it once I get a little bit established, because I'm moving and all that stuff. So I'll probably try to see, try to do one then I have more time, because right now I can't even imagine having to like move and do all this stuff and try to do a BRRRR. And, like you said, it takes a lot and learning the calculations and stuff, because I do the calculations for regular long term rentals but then to have an estimate, like you know how much is the drywall going to cost, how much is you know to do electrical, to renew the plumbing and all that stuff, that's all like extra calculations and work because you got to talk to contractors and stuff like that. It's like I need a little bit more time to be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Things are going to happen but, like you said, the risk is pretty low for you because you already had like two other properties that were like you know that's the way I see it Like okay, I already have these two other properties that can make up for this property.

Speaker 1: 37:16

If I take a little bit risk and that's the important thing is to know your risk tolerance. That's the important thing is to know your risk tolerance. And you know you were able to go do this bird and luckily it worked out at the end. But if it had failed, I mean, you could have just sold it and then, you know, learned a few lessons and probably maybe lost a few bucks. But like you know, you learn, you gain experience and that knowledge for the next time. Uh. So I think, uh, one of the things is to not really you know see them as failures is like learning experiences, cause now you know more for the next one, if you do decide that. So is that something you're going to do now again, or are you just going to go back to um regular long-term?

Speaker 2: 38:03

I'm going to do it again because I'm a sadistic person. I learned a lot during those six months that I had the birth and I also learned that I need I could do the same over and over again with the same money that I use for that particular property. So that is the beauty of like leveraging debt.

Speaker 1: 38:30

And.

Speaker 2: 38:31

I no longer have to budget, like from house number one and house number two. I had to like save actively all the time. Right, you know, those $20,000, even though it's a very low cost of entry, it's still twenty thousand dollars. Like you're still having having to save it every time that you're getting your paycheck like, okay, this is gonna go to real estate, this is gonna go to real estate. Are you gonna get your nails done or are you gonna put it down to real estate? But are you gonna get that haircut, or you're okay. So there's always like that dance so now, because I I'm learning how to leverage debt, then there is the possibility of growing and scaling so much faster and then, with the bank's money, I'm glad you you brought that up, because it's true, I think, um, it's hard to overcome that.

Speaker 1: 39:24

Initials like oh, I got to save up for this, the 20,000 or whatever. But once you get the first two, like it starts like snowballing. Like you said, now I had to save up with my own money, but now I don't have to save up my own money, it's just, I'm just reinvesting the cash flow from my houses and it's like it gets easier and faster to save up from the cash flow you know, to save up for another down payment and on top of that you know, like you said, leveraging debt. So then you start growing. Because now the first rental property it's ready to I think I'm still going to wait another year, but I think it's ready already to do a cash out, refinance on it or maybe figure out how to do something with that, and then, probably the year after that, probably the second. But in the meantime I'm still buying another property because of the cashflow.

Speaker 1: 40:25

Let's say, this year, right, and I just bought in December. Now I have enough cash flow to save up for another one this year and then next year I could probably buy two, because I would have saved up from the four now and then be able to leverage some debt from the first two properties. So then it starts, you know, snowballing and it starts, like you know, really compounding and growing. So I'm glad you mentioned that. And I think the last question I want to kind of like ask, or you know, for your thoughts, because a lot of people in our community we grow up avoiding debt and all that. So what are your words of advice or tips to help them overcome this idea of like, oh man, I don't want to take debt on my house or anything like that?

Speaker 2: 41:16

Yeah, there is a very complicated relationship with debt in our mind and I really had to overcome that too. Like I don't like having a home loan, having two mortgages, having three mortgages, having a home equity line of credit on your primary, it's, it's. It feels overwhelming. And if you're the kind of person that's like, well, if it's not, it's not mine, then I don't own it, like the banks own it. But at the same time, this is not something that's going to be depreciating over time. I mean, yes, we write off the paper loss. But if I look at it like let me buy another car, and then let's say you buy a $50,000 car, $30,000 car, whatever you drive it off the lot, then it's worth what? $20,000 less? That's an, that's a liability. I see that as a liability.

Speaker 2: 42:15

And then what you're investing on is an asset. So when you invest on an asset that is going to be appreciated over time because houses appreciate like the general idea of the whole market is that in the United States, houses appreciate 4% to 5% every year, regardless of you doing anything, upgrading or anything like that you have that. And then you have a tenant that's paying down your debt. Like you're not paying it down, right A tenant that's paying down your debt, like you're not paying it down. Right, a tenant that's paying down your debt. Then you have debt paid down. Then you have appreciation normal appreciation, then debt paid down. And then then if you, let's say, do some cosmetic work to the house or some some kind of upgrade to the house, then you have appreciation. So you're winning like three ways in that particular asset. So just identify what are you investing on? Are you investing on a liability? Are you investing on an asset? Is what you're putting money away or saving money away is going to bring you income? Then you need to understand that that's good debt, that's not bad debt. So leveraging and learning all of this it takes time.

Speaker 2: 43:31

And then I'm glad that you put this platform for people like us that don't have the education, don't have the people to ask them around. And if you know, I'm sure if they ask you a question, you'll be like here you go. And if you know, I'm sure if they ask you a question, you'll be like here you go, like read this book or listen to this person, or look at this video or whatever. So that's how they educate themselves. And the education.

Speaker 2: 43:53

Then there is action. The action is going to come from that mindset shift. Mindset shift that's going to come from, like, investing in liabilities or investing in assets, and I want to also let everybody know, like, if you do want to contact me or ask me any questions, I also have I started a YouTube channel and I'm trying to get other people involved in real estate, primarily women, primarily Latino women, because it is time to take ownership of our finances and our life, and with this administration, everything is just really up to you. So take ownership of your life, and one way you can do that is take ownership of your finances.

Speaker 1: 44:37

Yeah, and what is your YouTube?

Speaker 2: 44:40

Yeah, it's Lynn does investing. It's L I N does investing on Instagram.

Speaker 1: 44:48

I'll make sure to post that on there. Make sure you know, go out there and support her. But yeah, other than that, again, thank you so much for coming on here and sharing your story. Like it was pretty interesting, especially, I mean, you know, like it sucked at the time, I'm sure, with the burr, but you know. So it's a good story and you learned a lot from it. I learned from it, you know, cause I never thought like, oh, you know what you probably should check the electrical wiring for all of it, you know so cause it would have thought from light bulb, but yeah.

Speaker 1: 45:21

Yeah, cause usually I, you, you think about, about like outlets, but not from the light fixtures. So, um, you know, always learning um, but again, you know, make sure you, uh, you follow her. Her information will be down below and I will see everyone in the next episode. Bye, bye, everybody.