Before starting with REIC, I didn’t know anything about real estate, barely made enough to cover expenses, and didn’t see a feasible way to become financially independent at an early age. I wanted to be free – I have many passions I want to explore and dreams I want to fulfill, but I knew with the life I had, it would be very later in life (if ever) for me to actually realize those.
Kris Krohn, whom I grew up with in Seattle, helped me buy my first home, nothing down. He said it had equity and at the time I didn’t really know what that meant but I trusted him. I was single, and as I started renting out my extra bedrooms, I was amazed that I was getting PAID to live in my own house (I was getting more rent than the mortgage payment) – even though I didn’t put anything down on the house; and THAT’S when I understood what equity meant!
Naturally I was very excited, and started learning all I could about real estate (I’m a real estate nerd at heart) and many of my friends and family caught my enthusiasm and decided to join REIC. A few asked me to partner with them, so they could leverage my “experience”; where I became the management partner and used their money and credit to help them achieve a better return. By so doing, I picked up 2 additional houses through partnering in this manner. I bought another residence about the same time (one year after the first one), and had exactly the same results as with the first house. Later, in November 2008, my wife and I married and bought our first house together, also with an REIC discount.
WITHIN JUST 18 MONTHS OF JOINING, I CHANGED FROM A NET WORTH OF -$30,000 AND NO HOPE OF ANY REASONABLE RETIREMENT; TO 5 HOMES, A NET WORTH OF OVER $150,000; AND A CLEAR VISION ON HOW TO CREATE RETIREMENT THROUGH REAL ESTATE. My dreams and visions will now be fulfilled. Since then, I have invested in national real estate and partnered to own 3 more local properties.
I am so excited for what REIC did and is doing for me. Without REIC, I’d be lucky to own 1 house right now.
